John Columbinus

ON BLESSED JOHN COLUMBINUS, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE JESUATI. NEAR SIENA IN TUSCANY.

In the Year 1367.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The ancient cult of the Blessed one from various monuments. How great is the utility in perusing the deeds of the Saints, how great the efficacy for changing minds, this day two eminent founders of religious Orders teach us, namely blessed John Columbinus and St. Ignatius of Loyola, [The sanctity of this Blessed one, who had been converted to God by pious reading,] whom the fortuitous reading of similar histories roused to imitation, and the examples of the Saints, deeply impressed on the heart, led to an eminent sanctity of life. The first of these, of whom we here must treat, converted to good fruit by pious reading of this kind, afterward was famous for so many virtues and so great a fame of holiness, that a little after his death the common consent of the people conferred on him the accustomed honors of the Saints, and followed him with public veneration, as through the course of this commentary and of the Acts will appear.

[2] Paul Morigia in his Italian History of the Jesuati, published at Venice in the year 1604, he was acknowledged by Pope Pius II, book 1, chapter 66, page 109 and following, asserts that John Columbinus was to have been solemnly inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints by Pope Pius II, had not death, following shortly, impeded the good will of this Pontiff. This assertion can be confirmed from the singular affection of Pius II toward blessed John Columbinus, whose holy relics in the convent of Saints Abundius and Abundantius near the city of Siena in the year 1464 he venerated, as is clear from the inscription carved there on a marble tablet, which Joseph Bonafede after Morigia in the Life of blessed John Columbinus, book 2, chapter 22, more correctly exhibits in this manner: "Pius II, Supreme Pontiff, sprung from Siena, when he was preparing an expedition against the Turks, on the Kalends of May 1464, having entered both churches of this place, and having kissed the relics of the most blessed John Columbinus, commended the life of the nuns standing by with most ample words, and to them, in life and at the article of death, most full pardon of their sins; but to all and each visiting this church on the same day, and on the feast of Saints Abundius and Abundantius, he bestowed in perpetuity an indulgence of seven years and as many quarantines."

[3] Hence our John Baptist Rossi in the Triumph of blessed John Columbinus, part 3, chapter 3, §2, concerning the public cult of the same Blessed one thus writes: while he venerated his holy relics, "Meanwhile, while Columbinus goes on to deserve well of the human race in heaven, as he had begun on earth, men go on to repay the reciprocation of honor and veneration, to whom his frequent miracles in life and after death had persuaded that he was to be most holily venerated. Nor had this opinion prevailed only in the minds of the common people and of private persons, but it had settled also in the breasts of the great, and, what was to be most greatly desired, it moved the supreme Pontiff himself, that by his example he might foster and confirm the piety of the faithful: for Pius the Second (I bring forth the words from the marble tablet inserted in the wall of the temple of holy Abundius), sprung from Siena, when he was preparing expeditions against the Turks, on the Kalends of May 1464, having entered both churches of this place, and kissed the relics of the most blessed John Columbinus, commended the life of the nuns standing by with most ample words," etc.

[4] Further, how great an increase the honor of blessed John took from this piety of the Roman Pontiff, and he greatly increased it the same writer of our Society in the work just cited, part 4, chapter 15, §7, sets forth in these words: "I do not indeed think that so sublime a sanctity and glory of Columbinus could be equaled either by our style, or by a more elegant and cultivated one: yet what we have said show him such a one, to whom are owed temples and altars, and the honor of the Saints, and that this, deservedly conferred on him by the Pontiffs and the other faithful, is bestowed, is greatly to be rejoiced at. The beginning of a most excellent action was of his own accord given by him, from whom the rest were not wont to receive except by earnest prayers after an accurate discussion: namely, Pius the Second, Supreme Pontiff, not without a divine nod, was not afraid to pour out a prayer on bended knee for the tomb of Columbinus, and to venerate the holy remains laid away in it."

[5] Imitating the example of the Shepherd, the troops of the peoples ran thither in throngs from the neighboring villages and castles; honor by his example, then, the fame of the miracles increasing, they hastened even from distant cities, nor departed except increased by benefits, who procured remedies for the evils of body and mind. Hence votive tablets were hung up, witnesses of impetrations, and heaped-up offerings, monuments of help received by the Saint's patronage. Further, God going on to propagate the glory of his Servant, altars began to be erected, radiant images to be struck, relics to be exposed for veneration, lamps to be kindled, his birthday to be celebrated yearly, his name to be inscribed in the sacred calendars of the Church, and whatever other things are wont to be exhibited by our mortality to the immortals, whom by the Apostolic reckoning it is established can be venerated, as enjoying a blessed age and reigning with Christ in the palace of the heavens.

[6] Now indeed, who of the succeeding Pontiffs would not have subscribed to Urban the Fifth, that it was wont to be shown to him from immemorial time. who held Columbinus for a saint while still surviving? Who would not have praised the piety of Pius the Second venerating the holy bones? Who would not have adhered to the numerous suffrages of the other Pastors of the Church? All indeed, however many reigning in the Vatican see the centuries saw after Urban, either loved John, as a most ardent lover of Jesus; or adorned him with encomiums, as a defender of the Church; or admired him, as a doer of great things and even of miracles. Which was the cause of their propense will toward the Jesuati and their facility in the largess of privileges, by which the fortified society defends itself wholly by its own strength and forces, and shines, if not by multitude, by splendor, among the religious families.

[7] From the collect, The above-praised Morigia in his History of the Jesuati, book 1, chapter 67, page 117 and following, exhibits to us the commemoration of blessed John Columbinus wont to be made in this manner: ANTIPHON. "Farewell therefore, glorious John, ever making memory of us with God, that by your most pious intercession we may be able both in the present to be protected from all dangers, and in the future to obtain the joys which you already possess. V. Pray for us, most blessed John Columbinus. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ." COLLECT. "O God, the exaltation of the humble, who didst inflame the most blessed John Columbinus, your most beloved confessor, with the ardor of so great charity toward you, that he deserved always to have the most desired name of Jesus your Son in his living heart and mouth: grant, we beseech, that by his merits and prayers we may so be kindled in your name and love, that with mind and heart we may love you alone above all things, and obtain the rewards promised to the humble. Through our Lord," etc.

[8] by an epigram, To this commemoration he there subjoins the following epigram: This Columbinus, though he could lead a soft life, And enjoy the nobility he had received; Yet he set all these advantages behind God, our Order's founder and chief, wishing to be. Nay, even Christ (learn hence how holy he was), Rotten with ulcers, he took upon himself, a sweet burden. I do not know what antiquity these have, and whether that commemoration was common and public in the diocese of Siena, or rather was used only in the Order of the Jesuati, and perhaps composed out of the private affection of someone toward the Blessed one.

[9] in the Martyrology Let us therefore proceed to the more certain arguments of legitimate cult, which the same Morigia furnishes us, while in the already-cited History, book 1, chapter 66, page 110, he affirms, that Pope Gregory XIII inserted the name of blessed John Columbinus into the Roman Martyrology, and that Pope Sixtus V granted plenary indulgences to all and each of the faithful who should visit the church of the Jesuati of Siena on the festal day of the same Blessed one. In the same place he adds, that his festivity is devoutly celebrated yearly by the city of Siena, the workshops being closed, and that on that day, in honor of the Blessed one, many alms are distributed to the poor by the noble descendants of the Columbinus family.

[10] the Roman one, Certainly in the Roman Martyrology on the day before the Kalends of August we read even today thus: "At Siena in Tuscany, the birthday of blessed John Columbinus, institutor of the Order of the Jesuati, illustrious for his sanctity and miracles." To these add what our Rossi, part 4, chapter 15, §7, thus relates: "Finally in our age the last honor befell the Saint, not destined to be the last for those to come, when by an ample diploma of the congregation of Rites, that is, of Paul the Fifth, faculty was made to the city and diocese of Siena of reciting the divine Office of blessed Columbinus, as is the custom for the other confessors; and there is a hope not vain that it will one day be extended throughout the whole world, as far as the Church of God widely extends." But that hope, which then shone upon our Rossi, has now nearly vanished, since the Order of the Jesuati is extinct, which by the lapse of time would probably have obtained this ampler glory of its Founder.

[11] and by other monuments After such manifest testimonies of legitimate cult I do not think that the announcements of the more recent Martyrologists should here be accumulated, among whom Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at this day, after a fairly accurate synopsis of the Acts, subjoins this annotation: "Gregory XIII judged that he should be described in the Roman Martyrology; but Paul V, Supreme Pontiff, granted to the church of Siena and the religion of the Jesuati (which without the permission of the Apostolic See, long before, celebrated the birthday of its Father) that on this day they should venerate him with an ecclesiastical Office."

[12] While Ferrari here says, that the festivity of blessed

John Columbinus was celebrated by the Jesuatic Order without the permission of the Apostolic See long before, his legitimate cult is proved. I so understand him, that he only wishes that the express permission of the Apostolic See was lacking: for I do not doubt that in the ancient manner the public fame of sanctity, the common voice of the people, the tacit consent of the Church, and especially the example of Pope Pius II, impelled the Jesuati to do this. Nay rather, that John Columbinus, before the times of Pius II the Pontiff, was adorned with the titles and honors of the Saints, I gather from Feo Belcari, who in the year of Christ 1449 published his Acts in Italian, in which everywhere he calls him blessed or holy. These things I think suffice to assert the immemorial and legitimate cult of our Blessed one. Now I shall enumerate the various writers of the Acts, that their authority may be known, and what I shall say hereafter may be more easily understood. § II. The various writers of the Acts, and their authority. The first Jesuati, who had lived with blessed John Columbinus, were more solicitous to follow the humble footsteps of their Master, The Life of the Blessed one was written in passing by Christopher Ganus, than to commit his illustrious deeds to writing. Yet Christopher Ganus, whom Bartholomew of Siena, the Carthusian, in his annotations to the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, page 185, shows to have been contemporary with, or at least near in time to, blessed John Columbinus, wrote a commentary concerning the conversion and manners of the same Columbinus, of which Feo Belcari in his prologue to the Italian Acts of that Blessed one thus testifies: "I saw the Life of the same holy Man written by Master Christopher Ganus, an excellent citizen of Siena, and extended to forty chapters, in which he assigns rather useful documents than sets forth his memorable deeds, whereas in the autograph epistles of blessed John and the authentic instruments of public notaries I have read many testimonies of his great sanctity, which he passed over."

[14] In the order of time this writer seems to be followed next by blessed John of Tossignano, and blessed John of Tossignano, whose Acts in our work at the 24th day of July were illustrated: for he, taken up from the Order of the Jesuati to the see of Ferrara, according to the same Feo Belcari, composed a certain little work in which he briefly narrated the conversion and death of blessed John Columbinus, to demonstrate the origin of his congregation. Bartholomew the Carthusian of Siena in the praised annotations to the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, on the page just cited, thus makes mention of this writing: "Blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, composed a history of the same institute and discipline at the persuasion of blessed Nicholas Albergati the Carthusian, of the holy Roman

Church Cardinal of Bologna, which afterward also, several things being collected here and there and excerpted especially from the epistles of the same Columbinus, Feo Belcari the Florentine augmented and enriched, a man of good name, and a poet in the Tuscan language not common, and inscribed and dedicated it to John, son of Cosimo de' Medici." Concerning Feo Belcari, who collected the Acts of blessed John Columbinus about the middle of the fifteenth century from various ancient instruments, I shall soon indicate more.

[15] whose latter lucubration was seen by our Rossi, Our Rossi saw this lucubration of blessed John of Tossignano or Tossignani, and concerning it in the above- mentioned work, page 2, bears this judgment: "Its autograph written by his own hand, kept in the treasures of the monastery of Saints John and Paul at Rome among the holy relics, lent to me to peruse by the Reverend Father Aloysius Renzoli, definitor of the Order (namely the Jesuatic, which then still subsisted), seems the fountain of the rivulets which the later writers drew into the little plots of their books; except that he restricted in a compendium what in Morigia is more widely diffused, because he expressly professes that he was not so much weaving a history, as handing down the beginnings of the nascent congregation. But there is weight in the brevity, that a Saint is praised by a Saint."

[16] who concerning the other fragments of the Acts Nevertheless these imperfect monuments of the ancient writers brought some light to curious posterity, and sharpened their diligence, that from everywhere they collected other fragments of the same Acts, as the praised Rossi in the same place, page 5 and following, hints in these words: "Yet it is not to be imputed as a fault to antiquity, that, content to have tasted a few things from the most abundant harvest of excellent deeds, it omitted to note the circumstances of times and places: for, more a lover of holy simplicity than of labor in writing, it preferred to imitate the examples of the blessed Founder's life and manners, than to refer the same, with skillful observation, into diaries, careless meanwhile as to what posterity would one day wish to know in detail, which through succeeding ages fame would have gone on to make common."

[17] prudently discourses. The diligence of the few is indeed to be praised, who, having received from their elders a tradition by no means doubtful, noted in monuments as best they could, strove to reduce it into a better order; but the things which have been passed over and buried by the long oblivion of times, that they may be recalled to light and memory, is to be expected from no one's industry; but of those of which some traces have remained, they can, by the benefit of narration, be brought back into a clearer and more explicit notice by a sagacious investigator, who separates the certain from the probable, and distinguishes the contingent from the necessary, that the truth, expressed in its own colors, may come forth into public, a little indeed more polished, but by no means painted, and, as far as was permitted, augmented in its numbers, not perfected in all (which could not be done). By this clause Rossi indicates the method which he himself used in weaving the Life of blessed John Columbinus, and of which we shall treat a little later more fully.

[18] Feo Belcari wrote These two were succeeded by Feo Belcari, a citizen of Florence, who by good right can be enumerated among the chief writers of the Columbinian Life, in that he collected the dispersed monuments of the ancient authors, and illustrated them from the tradition nearest to his age, and published ampler Acts of blessed John Columbinus in the year 1449 in Italian, which year is noted at the end of the Acts. For the rest, what sort of man that Feo Belcari was can be drawn from Michael Poccianti, who in the Catalogue of the writers of Florence, in our copy page 55, has this about him: "Feo Belcari, most illustrious for Tuscan and almost divine song, endowed with most holy manners and a most upright life, published several odes, among which stands out that one, admired by all, whose beginning is: 'DA CHE TU M'HAI, DIO, IL COR FERITO.' Besides, the Life of blessed Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuatic Order. He departed this life on the 16th day of August, in the year of Christian Redemption 1484."

[19] Certainly those things which Feo Belcari wrote concerning blessed John Columbinus and the illustrious Jesuati, that same Life in Italian with a pious and simple style, breathe sincere simplicity and great piety, so that the most eminent Baronius, on the occasion of blessed Columbinus on this day, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, concerning this little work of the author rightly thus pronounced: "The deeds of him and his companions were written by Feo Belcari, which are read printed, and are redolent of great piety." Whether the most eminent Cardinal did not know the already-mentioned older writers of the Columbinian Life, or rather wished to name Feo Belcari alone, as the chief collector of those Acts, we do not know. We have a double copy of this little work: one was printed at Siena in the year 1541, and runs without any distinction of chapters or pages; the other was reprinted at Rome in the year 1558 and is distinguished into chapters and pages. Wherefore, for the sake of clarity, I shall cite this latter edition, when anything from these Acts is to be adduced.

[20] I had indeed at first resolved to render faithfully into Latin the deeds and miracles of blessed John Columbinus from the ancient Italian idiom of Feo Belcari; which we had first resolved to render into Latin from it; but, all things being maturely weighed, I changed my mind, both because that labor would be gloomy and difficult to me, and because it might seem useless, since our Rossi had already published the Acts of the same Blessed one in Latin, and drew his narration for the most part from Feo Belcari and Morigia. And so what only detained me from our institute was the method of Rossi, alien to it, by which longer digressions he inserts into the Acts, and divides the Life into various and discrepant parts, in order in both places to introduce blessed John Columbinus as triumphing, and fully to satisfy the title of his book; but at last I saw that these difficulties too could somehow be overcome, as I shall note afterward.

[21] After him Paul Morigia the Jesuat copiously illustrated the Acts and miracles of blessed John Columbinus, but since after him and Paul Morigia, concerning whose work our already-praised Rossi, page 1, judges thus: "No single one of those who undertook to write the Life of blessed John Columbinus labored more happily than the Reverend Father Paul Morigia of Milan, illustrious in blood and virtue, and celebrated for the fame of the books published. For to none did it fall to obtain so many aids for the completion of his work, as to this man, besides the common ones of each and those of public right for all, the domestic and private archives furnished: for to the whole Order of the Jesuati, presided over by him with supreme command, it was free and convenient to search the shelves of any chief monastery, and to unroll the ancient records hidden in them, and to insert into his history whatever recorded deeds of the Blessed one they contained, and to vindicate from the darkness of ignorance things unknown to the rest and omitted."

[22] There were added the singular piety of upright and religious men toward their Founder and Parent, instructed with copious documents, the ardor of propagating his honor and cult, the desire of aiding and adorning the whole family committed to his care, which added spurs to the runner, that he might go on alertly and investigate all monuments, lest he be ignorant of anything which he deemed worthy to be known by the human race. In which study and exertion he seemed to experience the help of divine favor by no means common: for the sincerity of the narration, which is reckoned the first praise of a historian, adorned with the candor of the simplicity familiar to him, he so tempered with the richness of an easy and plain elocution, that he extorts assent even from a peevish reader, and suffuses the mind with a sense of devout delight."

[23] Joseph Bonafede, a clerk Regular of the congregation of Lucca of the Mother of God, and another Italian biographer in the year 1642 at Rome published an Italian work, which he distributed into four books: in the first two he sets forth the deeds and miracles of blessed John Columbinus; in the third he relates the spiritual documents of the same Blessed one and some of his epistles; in the fourth, finally, he narrates the virtues of certain illustrious Jesuati. But in the proem he gives the reason of his new writing, and there at the end warns the reader that he faithfully took the pious exhortations of the Blessed one and some of his epistles at Rome from an old manuscript of the Altemps library. Afterward, in the appendix which we shall append to the Acts and miracles, and in the Notes to the Acts, this third book will be of use to us.

[24] and our Rossi published the Acts of the same Blessed one in Latin, Finally John Baptist Rossi, priest of our Society, at Rome in the year 1648 by the press of Manelphus Manelphi issued a book, to which this title is prefixed: "The Triumph of divine grace through blessed John Columbinus, or the triumph of blessed John Columbinus, founder of the Jesuati, through divine grace." The fivefold division of that book plainly corresponds to this title: for he himself, page 9, exhibits such an index of the individual parts: FIRST PART. The triumph of blessed John Columbinus over the three concupiscences, which are deplored in the world by St. John the Evangelist. Second part. The triumph of blessed John Columbinus over the lovers of the world, men, and demons. THIRD PART. The glory of the triumph of blessed John Columbinus through heavenly gifts and miracles. Fourth part. The ornament of the triumph of blessed John Columbinus through the infused virtues and heroic acts. Fifth part. The pomp of the triumph of blessed John Columbinus, his companions enrolled, and taught by him.

[25] this author, with due reservations, we shall transcribe, But this partition, as I hinted above, did not much please me, both because it interrupted the thread of the history with frequent digressions, and because it inverted the order of the deeds, contrary to our custom, with those various classes of triumphs. But at last I judged that I had found a remedy for these inconveniences, if I omitted the longer digressions, and reduced the other things placed out of order to the historical series, as I shall signify by dots in the text of the Acts, and, where it shall be worth while, I shall observe in the Notes. Further, this author wrote the deeds of the Blessed one most amply and ornately; but very many typographical faults disfigured his elegant narration, so that I have been compelled to correct them partly from the errata placed at the end, partly by conjecture. You have here a sufficient account of the Acts to be published: now hear also with what aids that writer was instructed for composing that work, that you may know the authority of the writing.

[26] both because he saw various ancient monuments, First of all Rossi, after enumerating the ancient and more recent authors who wrote the Life of blessed John Columbinus, or at least made mention of the things piously and prodigiously done by him, page 3, subjoins this: "It was moreover our care, concerning certain doubtful matters, to consult by letters those from whom some light seemed it could be hoped: and although we had answers about few things, which we shall not conceal, yet more things remain wrapped in the darkness of antiquity, and to be opened only then, when the day of the Lord shall come, which by its immense light will make manifest the hidden things, and will draw back the veil of the goods and evils long lying hidden." You see here the candid simplicity of the writer; but now note also his prudent diligence.

[27] both because he took care that the archives of the Jesuati In the preface, page 6 and following, he thus sets forth the pious cause of his writing and its various aids: "I indeed, by the persuasion of friends and at the request of the counselor men among the Jesuati, not unwillingly allowed myself to be led to the undertaking of a most honorable work, that I might write in Latin the life led among mortals by Columbinus, hitherto not given in Latinity: yet on this condition I bound my faith, that they too should not be reluctant to lend their own effort, and should again unroll the domestic archives and records of the Order, unrolled by Morigia, if perhaps to those searching there might be given to find some hidden parchments in the little chests or wrappings of writings, by which a new adornment might accrue to the history and richness for amplifying the old, trite description of others."

[28] Relying on the promise of these and aided by their help, I shall perhaps bring no little profit to the labor of another and to the commentaries, he took care that they be discussed again, though otherwise I should not repent of the effort, and should think I had done something worthwhile, if the volume came forth increased with briefer scholia and little notes, where things worthy of singular attention seem, and which will be able to bring some fruit of doctrine or of morals to the reader. Besides that it will redound to the Saint's glory, if, borne as it were on the wings of Latin oration, the fame of his wondrous sanctity should fly through the regions of the widely-extending world, and, going out beyond the confines of Italy, defined by the Italian writing, may proclaim to every nation which is under heaven the greatness of the virtues and miracles of the Man enrolled among the heavenly ones and most worthy of cult, and bring in his veneration. Which, to one striving to accomplish it, it is so in mind to adhere to the testimony of the former writers named a little above, that yet, to express in its proper colors the image of the divine Hero, I shall direct my finger and style, and under the figure of one triumphing shall introduce him to be contemplated on the stage of the ascetics.

[29] Although therefore that writer, solicitous of adorning the triumph of the Blessed one, [and in the substance of the history faithfully adhered to the traces of the ancients.] more often interrupted the historical thread of his narration, and somewhat changed the common order of the Acts, yet from what has already been said it is clear that he had the venerable monuments of antiquity before his eyes, and faithfully adhered to them, as can also be perceived from the Italian Acts of Feo Belcari and Morigia. But if anywhere in the substance of things he disagrees with the other historians, I shall not be reluctant to warn the reader in the Notes or elsewhere of that discrepancy. I have not wished here to enumerate among the biographers our Peter Ribadeneira, Silvanus Razzi, and others, who drew the life of blessed John Columbinus from others, or made mention of his deeds only in passing. Yet receive a sufficiently neat synopsis of the Columbinian Life, until we reprint the ampler Acts of John Baptist Rossi, disposed in the manner in which I said above, after this previous Commentary. § III. An elegant eulogy of the Blessed one, or a compendium of his Life, from the Sienese calendars. The city of Siena in Etruria had many citizens and foster-sons endowed with eminent sanctity of manners, concerning whose virtues and miracles the Academy of the Intronati published at Siena in the year of Christ 1669 fuller calendars in Latin. The Sienese calendars narrate, In these, from page 361, among other venerable and holy men, blessed John Columbinus is adorned with a notable eulogy, which it seemed good to transcribe here, both because it contains certain singular things, and because, from the previous reading of it, clearer light will be received by those things which will hereafter in this commentary be said. Now it runs thus: "I would call John illustrious, because the blood of illustrious ancestors, drawn down in a series, flowed together at his birth; unless indeed, by no means needing another's splendor, he had so shone not only with the lights of his mind, but with the wondrous light of his countenance, that at Siena in his domestic chamber, and at Arezzo in the public lodging of travelers, he rendered the night enviable to the day. But see, I pray, whence a man, long wrapped in the darkness of earthly affections, suddenly drank so much of heavenly brightness.

[31] how blessed John Columbinus wonderfully, When John was once indignant that his household had prepared dinner later than usual, Blasia his wife, a woman noble by the lineage of the Cerretani and by her own virtue, had offered him a book containing the notable deeds of the Saints, for piously beguiling the time. That book Columbinus, revolving in his mind gains other than those of piety, when in the first impulse of anger he had cast it to the ground, being more sharply angry with his wife; soon, that tumultuous heat cooling, reverently took it up from the ground: for the contempt of the sacred volume had now begun to disquiet his mind with a certain heavier anguish. And when he had begun to unroll the codex lifted from the ground, by divine counsel it came about that he fell upon the history of Mary of Egypt, whose name is celebrated among the women praised for long penance.

[32] the Life of St. Mary of Egypt having been read, And behold, Columbinus began gradually to blush at his own expiations in her offenses, to see himself lamentable at her tears; and that she for six years above forty had washed away with lamentations, among the wild beasts, whatever she had sinned among men, he seriously perceived, he too, now better, a true dove indeed, groaned more bitterly, and kindled himself to join, not so much outside the cities, as outside the world, by a religious norm of living, days and nights to weepings. By the goads therefore of a far different hunger, nauseating all earthly things, John, driven, began most greedily to seek the hatred of himself and the love of God.

[33] and embraced a more austere manner of living, Hence, when by an irrevocable vow he bound himself to avoid all the allurements of the flesh, by the vileness of his garments and the squalor of his whole body he eminently avenged himself upon the urbane elegances and adornment, of which he had before been more zealous. Moreover with most severe fastings, with set prayers frequently interrupting his sleep, with scourges inflicted more sharply, and with other afflictions of the body, he expended his mind and strength: meanwhile most lovingly rendering assiduous services to God in his needy and sick ones, so much so that his wife, who herself had once provoked him to piety, now, wearied of the same as excessive, did not hesitate thereupon to repeat from a common saying, that she had prayed for rain for herself, not a deluge. But she was plainly, imprudently, accusing a golden deluge and a precious tempest.

[34] and took to himself companions of a more severe life, Certainly of imprudence she herself could not fail to condemn herself, when, under the appearance of a leprous little beggar, whom John, carrying him on his shoulders from the doors of the chief temple, before which he lay, had brought home, that he might be revived, she had shuddered at, she perceived that Christ or one of the heavenly ones lay hidden, from the most sweet odor with which he, straightway flying up from the bed, left the chamber suffused. But John, his lips being affected with an even more divine sweetness, which through a thousand kisses he had drawn from the flesh of the sick man, eminently salutary to his physician, from that time had Christ alone in his mouth in private and public conversations. The praises of Jesus through the crowded streets, thronged with people, he sang more sweetly together with the companions enlisted for a more perfect life, who from that most auspicious name deserved to hear themselves called Jesuati.

[35] and burned with great love of Christ And they report that he was wont to say that he led a perpetual death in living, because the praises of men did not everywhere resound Christ, the cold frost of a tongue by no means returning love to its most loving Repairer of the heart accusing it by the torpor of silence.

Nay, that he might expunge the oblivion of the desired name also with his pen, as far as he could, in the hundred epistles which survived, though almost all very brief, a thousand and four hundred times he expressed the name of Christ. He dared, I think, happily to emulate the illustrious and most celebrated love of the great Paul, redoubling the saving name in his epistles very often, namely that the most sweet voice, which, although assiduously repeated, could not yet but die in the being born on the lips, he might eternize on paper.

[36] And by this means John somehow exhaled the ardor of divine heat, which he could not contain in the straits of his breast, he blazed, so pre-fervid by the very experience of the senses, that sometimes a friend, expostulating with him how he could in the depth of winter, almost naked, sustain the assault of the cold, when he had placed his hand upon the breast of Columbinus so bidding it, could not bear the flaming force there any longer. So great fires containing within himself, you would call the snowy breast of the most chaste Man a breathing Etna, save that that blazed with infernal, this with heavenly, flames.

[37] For the rest, in the manner of lovers, John had to prove himself to his Love through adversities: whom he proved by the tolerance of adversities. and he proved himself strenuously, when, that he might not further stir the people to a life of a new kind, he endured with steadfast mind to be banished from his native city and district; and afterward most modestly he bore, before the supreme Prelate of the sacred rites Urban, the fifth of that name, that his own and his followers' innocence was detracted, as though under the appearance of false piety they really concealed heretical pravity. But both the sagacious prudence of the graver ones among the Purple-clad, and the very mind of the Pontiff, illumined from heaven, not only absolved the integrity of their life, but honored it also with unusual praises, the very infants especially patronizing them in a wonderful manner, who admonished their parents to do good to the Jesuati, surely in persuading a most just cause the least infants as orators. But the error of those who had proscribed so eminent a citizen from Siena, heaven immediately after his departure with dire whirlwinds and redoubled thunderbolts, and various diseases sent upon them, so strongly chastised, that through public legates the whole city humbly begged of John both pardon and his return.

[38] But far more frequently, by the light of kindness than of thunderbolts, did the admirable power of Columbinus with God flash: Finally the Blessed one, by miracles for those laboring under grievous malady, either by the touch of his little cloak or by herbs which the earth, provoked to unusual beneficence by the breath of his wondrous charity, suddenly gave, he often restored to their former health. He could also bring it about, that through the course of a whole night a burning lamp should consume no aliment at all; and most truly he did not lose oil and labor: for by a prodigy, clearer than the very light which he nourished, he at last moved his cousin Catharine to a manner of more severe life, which he had longer urged upon her.

[39] But this indeed is plainly to be wondered at: to one of his companions, by divine admonition, he prescribed and illustrious for the obedience of his disciples that what by his tongue he had sinned in familiar conversation, he should expiate by placing his whole head in the fire. He obeyed, animated by the very severity, not of a judge, but of his parent, and fell forward with his whole head into the flames. But John's virtue restraining the fiery force, after a certain delay, being recalled, not even one of his hairs being scorched, more lively from the pyre arose the phoenix of obedience, but not after ashes, the flames of the darting tongues meanwhile applauding the power of Columbinus with a murmur. By these and other wonders John rendered more illustrious the virtue of obedience, which, proved through all the harshest exercises especially of public contempt, he required from his followers: and that indeed, as the fruitful parent of all virtues, in a short time rendered them conspicuous by such illustrious endowments, that many peoples eagerly demanded them for the incitement of public piety.

[40] dies piously, But Columbinus, the twelve-year period of his life having been completed, led with most holy examples and continually expended on the love of God and the salvation of souls, while he sought Siena again from Viterbo, was called away to a better fatherland. He left the earth in the year from the virgin's childbearing 1367, after he had foretold many things far from witnesses to the priest performing the last offices of piety upon him, and, amid the dear embraces of his sons, with tears more tenderly poured out, mingled the streams of an inundating heavenly gladness. His last words, taken down by the faith of a public document and transmitted to posterity, he wished to be witnesses of the eminent probity of the sacred Sienese virgins, called after Saints Abundius and Abundantius, addressing them as second in honesty to the virgins of no Orders of the whole Christian world, and most truly conspicuous in holiness. Too great indeed was this inheritance of yours, most happy virgins, to be so illustriously praised by a most praised Man, and indeed in that article of life in which, since the tribunal of the eternal Judge impends, truth alone expresses the words of a dying man!

[41] and is honorably buried But you triumphed further, having obtained a richer treasure of hereditary right, namely the very sacred remains of mortality left by the columbine spirit, which afterward through very many prodigies illustrated themselves and their people at once. Certainly if to the living John there was notable command over the minds that were fugitives to heaven, where would he more worthily rest from death, than in that house from which he himself the same had said, some years before, that he had noticed them, long proscribed, fleeing with a groan? By this testimony also not lightly confirming the rightly-spread fame, that pleasing houses to heaven were once built by better spirits, which namely were not only impervious to the more wicked, but formidable, so that now Siena may exhibit to Christian truth this edifice of the heavenly ones, in which it may triumph over fabulous antiquity, boasting its Troy built by architect-gods.

[42] in the convent of Saints Abundius and Abundantius, Of the holy body buried in so noble a place an integrity utterly free of all stain long augmented the veneration; until, an hostile army once impending, when those religious virgins were compelled to retire within the city, a rain-drip having been let in (whether by chance or by craft, uncertain) into the Saint's tomb, those holy limbs gave way to decay, except the foot, which even today is shown undefiled. You would believe this to be, by which especially John shows himself to the earth, an inviolable glory, that he trod under foot the world and glory itself. What the author of the eulogy above, num. 35, has concerning the name of Jesus so often repeated in his epistles, can be confirmed from Feo Belcari, who in the Italian Life, chapter 57, thus writes: "In the hundred epistles of his which I read, and of which the greater part is completed in few words, I found the name of Christ written about a thousand four hundred times, besides the words by which mention is made of the same."

[43] which is said to have been built by angels. To the text of num. 41, in which the author of the eulogy hints that that convent of nuns was built by angels, with an asterisk the following are noted: "In the year 758 under King Pepin, in the convent called after Saints Abundius and Abundantius, eminently beneficent, the heavenly ones are said to have expended their labor in building its wall." Bartholomew the Carthusian of Siena in the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, chapter 8, obscurely indicates the prodigious building of the same convent. We leave this angelic building of the Benedictine monastery, of which Mabillon in the Annals of his Order makes no mention, to the faith of the Sienese relators, and with our elders, volume VII of May, page 211, we wish that there be suggested to us whatever concerning the foundation of that monastery and the relics of the Saints there, which gave occasion to its name, can be had. For the rest, those things which in this epitome of the Life and miracles are briefly touched, will be more clearly understood from the longer Acts, whose omissions and controversies we shall now examine. § IV. Some things omitted in the longer Acts, and controverted. In the Acts to be subjoined to this commentary, num. 81, we read that blessed Peter the Carthusian was consulted by our Columbinus concerning a more perfect method of life, From the Acts of blessed Peter Petroni we gather, which he was to choose; but in the same our Acts there is profound silence concerning the mutual familiarity between them and the other proofs of intimate friendship, which we draw from the above-mentioned Life of blessed Peter Petroni the Carthusian, which blessed John Columbinus himself wrote in Italian, and Bartholomew the Carthusian of Siena interpolated in Latin, as our Henschen in the previous commentary to those Acts on the 29th day of May, in volume VII of the same month, page 188, noted. And so this defect of our Acts from the Latin Life of blessed Peter Petroni, which the praised Bartholomew published at Siena in the year 1619 together with his annotations, we shall here try to supply.

[45] In that Life, book 2, chapter 8, after a long exhortation by which blessed Peter rouses John Columbinus to embrace poverty, that there was to him so great these things are related: "Columbinus therefore, captivated by the holiness and converse of so great a man, seemed to have obtained that understanding of divine things, with the same Peter as leader and moderator, that to the other works of piety and voluntary inconveniences, which he himself had of his own accord undertaken for expiating the luxury of his former life, these he willingly and gladly added; namely that in the exercise of praying and meditating he should lean with his whole breast: which zeal of soul indeed, lest it should grow cold in him, he was wont frequently to come to the Charterhouse, where, with Peter together with other men of eminent piety, not only to hold spiritual meetings, and frequent conversations with him about divine things, but also to bring thither others and thereupon others whom he found propense to Christian piety. …"

[46] This course of living Columbinus held up to the death of Peter; whom, taken from human affairs, so far was he with blessed John Columbinus from remitting anything of the manner of life he had entered upon, that even for undergoing all the harshest things for Christ's cause he felt a certain fresh alacrity in a moment diffused within himself. Nay then afterward, as has been demonstrated above and elsewhere we shall demonstrate much more clearly, by the visions of that blessed man he was both again and again refreshed and to all sanctity instructed: so that through these, as through certain heavenly admonitions, he clearly conjectured, that Peter in heaven was present also to his undertakings, and bore his patronage and care, clothed about with blessed immortality.

[47] Meanwhile, while, aided by these divine helps, Columbinus hastened his step to the summit of perfection, familiarity and friendship, Peter his son, not yet in full puberty, not long after the death of our Peter himself departs from life, by whose bereavement the excellent parent showed such firmness of mind, that he displayed no sign of grief or sadness; nay rather he gave the greatest thanks to God, that through the death of his dearest son he saw removed from him that obstacle, which up to that time had stood in his way, so that the less he had given himself wholly to God, stripped of all the helps of life, as had been his desire.

[48] so that blessed John observed his chief actions, Nay rather, so great was the converse of our John Columbinus with blessed Peter Petroni, that he observed his chief actions, left in writing to posterity the things piously and prodigiously done by him, and was an eye-witness of very many miracles, as could be proved by many examples. But it will suffice to have related a few things, before one of which Bartholomew of Siena, book 2 of the Petronian Life, chapter 10, page 90, thus prefaces: "I think it will not seem absurd to subjoin to these that which our Columbinus committed to writing as having happened to him, namely in that very year and month in which our blessed Peter departed from human affairs. I narrate the event in brief."

[49] and saw several of his miracles. Then on the following page he thus narrates the matter itself: "When on a certain day Peter was held by a great desire of truffles, turning to Columbinus, he said: 'Ah, John, bring me, I beseech you, a few truffles: for I am carried away by a sharp desire of them.' To whom Columbinus soon said: 'You know, father, that nowhere, especially in the month of May, which is now current, are truffles found.' To which soon Peter, relying on the paternal providence of the heavenly Godhead, said, 'Go, in a good hour.' But on the following day, when Columbinus was taking the road together with Joachim toward the Charterhouse, for the sake of visiting Peter, both passed by the cloth-shop of the same Columbinus, and there they meet a certain young man, steward of the same shop, holding in his hand a great paper wrapping full of truffles: who immediately offered that very thing as a gift to Columbinus. Then he, astonished at the miracle, and at once suffused with joy, took the truffles to be soon carried to Peter."

[50] From the same Life it is clear that blessed John practiced trade, From the narration of this miracle it is at the same time clearly confirmed that blessed John Columbinus practiced trade, although some of his descendants studiously dissembled that profession of life, as Bartholomew the Carthusian in the annotations to the Life of blessed

Peter Petroni, pages 187 and 188, on the occasion of this history complains in this manner: "Here I would wish that they be present in mind who, nearly ten years ago now, gave their effort, that the Life of blessed John Columbinus, which, as we said, Christopher first Ganus, then Feo Belcari the Florentine consecrated to the letters of posterity, should again be printed: since, led by I know not what spirit, they took care that from it should altogether be expunged and deleted the places which testify that Columbinus, though sprung of a noble stock, yet practiced trade and did banking business.

[51] which some, however, wished to wrap in silence, But how far they have wandered from the truth, let them learn, if not from those authors of unshaken faith; certainly from Columbinus himself, who, writing of himself, confesses that he together with Joachim passed by his cloth-shop, when he took the road toward the Charterhouse, for the sake of visiting our Peter. But what need is there to use the writings of the ancients, when everywhere in his native city little two-year-old infants sing that very thing? This I would wish said, not that I might rise up against the dead, I mean against Julius Caesar Columbinus, by whose labor and zeal these same deeds of John Columbinus were lately published in print, as Paul Morigia testifies, but that the prudent and sensible reader may understand that I have reaped no small fruit from these both for building up and for illustrating the truth of our history."

[52] I think that here Morigia is noted, who in the edition of the year 1604 changed the words or wished to call into doubt, indicating a certain profession of trade, and in book 1 of the History of the Jesuati, chapter 2, thus introduces Columbinus answering his wife: "I must at once return to business," in Italian "alle facende." But Feo Belcari in the Italian Life of the same Blessed one, chapter 2, writes that John Columbinus answered his wife that he must at once return to the shop: for in place of Morigia's ambiguous word "alle facende," that is "to business," he himself put in Italian "al fondaco," which word signifies a shop or store of wares, as in the Dictionary of the Cruscan academy, and other lexicons, may be seen.

[53] I suspect that the noble descendants of the Columbinus family induced Morigia although there at that time trade to suppress the ancient trade of blessed John, as repugnant to their nobility. But they could have learned that that profession does not detract from nobility, where it is practiced according to the custom of the country, as Andrew Tiraqueau in his book on Nobility, chapter 33, num. 21, teaches in these words: "Nevertheless what we say, that trade is a hindrance to nobility, so proceeds, unless the custom of the region, which without doubt is to be observed, brings in something else, as among the Venetians and Genoese even nobles practice trade without reproach and detriment to nobility." The same our Rossi judges, as below from the Acts, num. 7, will be clear.

[54] Certainly Bartholomew the Carthusian does not deny the illustrious nobility of blessed John Columbinus, although he maintains the trade practiced by him, would not exclude his nobility. while after the long exhortation of blessed Peter Petroni concerning his conversion, book 2, chapter 8, page 78, he relates the following: "By which words indeed, and by sentences so ardent, as soon as the blessed Father made an end of speaking, Columbinus felt himself so affected and impelled to embrace Evangelical poverty, that, then illumined by a new abundance of divine light, he no longer so eagerly and ardently gaped after the gains of money as before, so that afterward he despised those very things from his heart. For, detesting, as a most foul pest of the soul, that depraved desire of having, by which in making profit he was daily more and more carried away, he began gradually to call away his mind from contracting new commerce, which either the NOBLE MERCHANT handled in trading, or the banker conducted in occupying and exchanging money."

[55] Now from this digression let us return to the way, and let us go on to enumerate the deeds of blessed John omitted in our Acts, with Bartholomew of Siena, From a certain narration of the same Life we draw, who, book 2, chapter 10, page 92, thus continues: "We have just now heard Columbinus writing of himself: let us hear also the same relating of his son Peter something no less wonderful than of himself, when at nearly the same time in which our blessed Peter exchanged life for death, we learn from him that the thing happened. There had come together into Peter's chamber at once some of the Fathers of the house, at once also other men noble in piety, to hear the blessed Man discoursing about heavenly things; when suddenly, about to make an end of his discourse, he subjoined, saying: 'Wait, I pray, a little, brethren: for it will not be long before Joachim comes to us together with the boy Peter, son of John Columbinus, who brings me certain little gifts, namely, almonds, poppies, and a single onion; nay rather, our house now standing near at hand, one of the poppies the boy himself at this point of time is chewing.' When those standing by heard this, they immediately began to smile.

[56] For the rest, scarcely had Peter said these and other things to the same effect, when at once it is announced that at the doors of the convent Joachim and the boy Peter stood: the son of blessed John Columbinus whom when the monks behold, and learn, having inquired, that the boy had eaten a poppy on the way, as the blessed Father a little before had foretold, they are straightway affected with great admiration. And when soon they had entered Peter's chamber, Peter, turning to the boy, who out of respect bent his knee before him, said: 'Sing, son, that little song, whose beginning is O DIVA NOBILIS MAGDALENA: for before you finish it, there will come to us here the priest of the Marian church, parish-priest at Marmoraria.' Nor were the words of the blessed Father cast to the wind: for the thing so entirely came to pass."

[57] was in life up to the year 1361. These things concerning the little son of blessed John Columbinus I wished to record, that against the erroneous opinion of some it might be established that that boy survived up to the year 1361, in which blessed Peter Petroni died, as Bartholomew in his annotations, page 194, observes in these words: "Concerning the boy Peter, son of blessed John Columbinus, there is nothing that I should add at present: for concerning him in the History we treated more fully, pages 79, 81, to settle the altercations of certain who rashly asserted that the boy departed from human affairs a few months after Columbinus his parent converted himself to God, that is in the year 1356; whereas otherwise we see him living up to the year 1361 with our blessed Peter."

[58] Blessed John most familiar with blessed Peter Petroni, There are in the same Acts many other things which pertain to blessed John Columbinus: for the praised collector of them relates that our Blessed one was joined with so great intimacy to blessed Peter Petroni, that he understood his hidden thoughts, observed his various predictions, saw many of his miracles, and once was suffused with heavenly delight from the most gleaming rays which he beheld flashing from the body of blessed Peter. Besides this he narrates that Columbinus steadfastly stood by him as he died, and from that poor furniture of his, which he had kept in place of holy relics, perceived a most fragrant odor. Finally he shows that blessed Peter Petroni often after death appeared to our blessed John, and communicated to him various spiritual counsels. But we forbear from describing these more fully, because in the same Acts of blessed Peter Petroni, which on the 29th day of May we inserted into our work, in volume VII of the same month, from page 189, they can be read.

[59] he is said to have been endowed with a delicate bodily habit and small stature, Feo Belcari in the Italian Life, chapter 57, hands down that blessed John Columbinus had a noble and delicate bodily habit and a small stature. Hence also in the proem of his little work he compares him with John de' Medici, whom he there thus addresses: "Since blessed John abounded in wealth and kinsmen, was illustrious in honors among his chief fellow-citizens, distributed great alms, and was similar to you in bodily stature and constitution, as you will clearly perceive, it seemed to me most fitting that I should consecrate this small labor of mine to you. … But if love arises from likeness, as the Philosopher will have it, I do not doubt that you will love blessed John, and receive many benefits from him: for he is great in the divine sight, and toward all his clients kind." Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book 1, chapter 64, described the same bodily habit from Feo Belcari, as I think.

But since our Rossi in the longer Acts, as far as I know, did not expressly mention that bodily constitution, I thought the reader should be warned of it in this place. But now concerning the birth and age of our Blessed one I shall examine a certain doubtful conjecture of the same Rossi.

[60] and that he died in the sixty-third year of his age, That writer already often praised, in the Triumph of blessed John Columbinus, part 2, chapter 22, §3, after adorning his blessed Triumpher with an epitaph, thus computes the times of his life: "The obsequies, further, were performed on the 11th day of August in the year of salvation 1367, the 12th of his conversion, of his age, by probable calculation, the 63rd: for a constant opinion among his kinsmen remains even today, that in this climacteric year he died, and therefore was born about the year 1304, and gave the beginning of his life to a better one, when he was in his 51st, on the second day of July." I do not sufficiently grasp how here he determinately assigns to the conversion of blessed John the second day of July, when before, in our Acts, num. 13, he begins to narrate his conversion thus: "The fifty-fifth year above the thousand three hundredth from Christ's birth was flowing, when on a certain day (what day of the month they did not express, because not even the month did the ancient writers care to record) returning early from the banking-table, John, exceedingly hungry, wished to feast, at once to recline, and to dine," etc. Whence therefore does the same author draw that blessed John gave the beginning of his life to a better one, when he was in his fifty- first year of age, on the second day of July, since the ancient writers did not express the day and month of the conversion?

[61] But what is handed down about the climacteric year of his age is equally uncertain: [which latter, however, is uncertain, since the year of his birth is not established.] for Rossi in the same Acts, num. 4, had already confessed the following: "For the rest, his birthday and month, nay rather even the year itself, is uncertain and obscure; nor did any light shine from the monuments of the Columbinus family or of the religion of the Jesuati upon those studiously searching, that a way might be opened to them of finding those things which, by the laws of history, it were not permitted to pass over in silence. Yet, the years of the conversion to God and of the death being compared with each other, to be mentioned below, it is an easy conjecture that about the three hundredth and some years above the thousandth of repaired salvation, the most fortunate birth of John happened." How therefore, by a probable calculation, is the sixty-third year of his age determined? If about the birth-year of the Blessed one no light shone from the monuments of the Columbinus family, on what foundation rests the constant opinion among his kinsmen, that he died in the climacteric year? That whole determination of years, months, and days, which our Rossi proposes, seems to arise only from a certain uncertain tradition of the Columbinus family. § V. Miracles wrought by the intercession of the Blessed one. John Baptist Rossi in his already several times mentioned Triumph, part 3, chapter 1, §1, concerning the miracles which by the intercession of blessed John Columbinus, both in life and after death, happened, Rossi, from many miracles, after other things thus discourses: "At the beginning indeed, where unbelief was to be overcome, and the hard necks of the Jews to be broken, it was contended by a multitude of signs; but these being triumphed over; when faith brought the whole world under its jurisdiction, there was indeed a cessation from the frequent working of miracles, yet not so, that any age from that most happy one of the Apostles ran barren, as would easily be known to one surveying each. But most fruitful did our elders see that one which bore blessed Columbinus to Christ, and gave his numerous offspring to the Church: for not he alone was chosen to do wonders in his life and after his death; but also almost all his disciples he deserved to have partakers of his wondrous operations, whom he had companions of the tolerance of sufferings, that is, rigid chastisers of their bodies, poor, humble, crucified to the world and affixed to heaven.

[63] selects a few, For those whom heavenly grace so finds, or rather makes, it also greatly marks with ornaments of that kind, and through them demonstrates the force of its power with this purpose, that faith may be nourished, piety fed, the truth of religion strengthened. To this it looked, when it granted Columbinus to be famous by miracles; of which many, recorded in monuments, came to the notice of posterity, more, suppressed in silence, lay hidden: and the number of all these, by the accession of more, which happen at the Saint's altars daily, is greater than that they can be comprehended in a part of a volume, or that it is worth the labor to comprehend them. For it will be better and enough to have tasted a few of the more notable and more ancient, by which the Saint's fame was ennobled, and the veneration of the peoples toward him augmented." Then he subjoins some prodigies wrought by John Columbinus while still living, which we, according to the historical series, as far as could be done, inserted into his Acts.

[64] among which he relates how a possessed woman, In the same Triumph, part 3, chapter 2, §1, he selected some miracles which happened after the death of the Blessed one, and of these touches on some briefly, and records a few others in this manner: "Not far from the monastery of holy Abundius a wicked demon was permitted to choose for himself, for a temporary lodging, the body of an upright young girl, and exercised in it a part of the hatreds by which he is stirred up against the human race. He grievously vexed the poor little one in insane ways, mocked her to the derision of her parents and to a contempt full of grief. Nor was there any force or means at hand for restraining his wickedness and malignity, whether he wished to distort her limbs, to invert them with violent motions, to dash her against walls or pavements, or to stir up vociferations and discordant clamors.

[65] when she touched the tomb of blessed John Columbinus, It happened once, that, having slipped from the house and running through a nearby court, her parents pursued her, that they might stop her and guard her from the precipice: but she, swifter, while she tries to cast herself into the neighboring temple, trod with her foot, near the doors, the tomb of Columbinus, and suddenly fell down lifeless. To reach her lying on the ground was easy for those pursuing, who, suspecting the faint to be caused by the evil inhabitant, hasten diligently to help the languishing one with fomentations and every aid. But she needs now no, or no such, medicine. She lies for some while placed out of herself; a little after, as if emerging from sleep, she raises herself on her feet, and confesses herself free of the iniquitous besieger.

[66] she was immediately freed, The parents wonder vehemently and joyfully ask whence the unhoped-for safety and peaceful quiet had returned in a moment, or how from the tyranny of the dire tormentor she had been asserted into liberty. She answered that the manner she could neither explain nor grasp; but that she had noticed, as soon as she had pressed with her soles the sepulchral ground, the impure spirit sent away from her, and that it was not to be doubted that this was by the hidden power and command of the Saint, whose remains were there laid. The fame of this event, pervading the whole neighborhood, penetrated into the city itself with a favorable murmur, and augmented the veneration of the citizens toward John and his body, which they began to hold in great price.

[67] where also others were snatched from the tyranny of the demon. And this one indeed, no help implored, and thinking nothing of the benefit, obtained a benefit: two others besides, beset and most wickedly held by the Stygian spirits, being led to the same tomb, departed thence free of their calamitous siege by prayers and evocations. To one of them, when there was lacking a supply of a priest to perform the exorcisms, the lady Paula, superioress of the nuns, tried to bring help with prosperous success. First indeed she commended her to the prayers of her own, which she hoped would greatly avail with God; then, armed with faith, through the virtue of Christ and the merits of his Servant Columbinus, she boldly commands the rebels to go out of the body, and to give a manifest and certain sign of their departure. To whom the treacherous one, with a discordant howl: 'And what sign do you bid be given?' 'That,' she said, 'you shake the lamp shining before the most venerable Sacrament.' 'By no means am I worthy,' the proud one answers, 'to approach thither; but I will leave no doubtful traces of my departure somewhere in the monastery,' and quicker than the word he went out, departed, and breathed into the wine-cellar, the most filthy one, so foul a stench and reek of sulphur, that for three whole weeks one could not set foot there unharmed."

[68] Another celebrated miracle in the same place, part 3, chapter 3, §2, he thus narrates: A nun, imploring the help of blessed John, "One of the nuns of those who are admitted to external ministries, in the ascetery of holy Abundius, was tormented by a vehement pain of the right thumb. There had flowed into it an acrid and malignant humor in such quantity, that, deformed by inflation and tumor, it miserably ulcerated it. Various medicaments applied brought rather shame to the art than help to the sick woman; and it came at last to this, that by amputation of the finger, for the safety of the arm and the other members, it was by the judgment of the physicians resolved that provision must be made.

[69] The night before the appointed butchery the poor woman passed sleepless in prayer, her thumb, now to be amputated, and to blessed Columbinus, whose help so many experienced at his tomb, she persevered in commending her thumb with inmost heart and tears. Toward dawn, roused by a certain inner impulse, she cannot contain herself from unrolling the poultice placed around the ulcer: and behold, no sign now of tumor or decay, all pain is gone, whole health is present, only the nail on the tip is wanting, that the miracle may be doubled. Again she gives herself to prayers, and hopes that he who does perfect works will by no means leave this imperfect through the merits of blessed Columbinus. As she hoped, so it came to pass; the nail was restored, and wiped away was whatever was deformed in the finger.

[70] When the morning was now clear, the surgeon is at hand, having ready the razor, ointments, suddenly he keeps sound. bandages, and whatever was necessary for the sad ministry. But the sick woman, meeting him, asserts that all that apparatus is superfluous, and gives credence to her word by showing the finger, in which not even a trace of the driven-away ulcer was found to have remained. The outcome of which miracle the whole choir of the sisters, and even the secular attendants themselves, and the physicians, eyewitnesses and heralds, published among outsiders: which was the cause that from the city several ran to the convent, and, piously curious, took in with their eyes what they had perceived with their ears."

[71] "But if to hang up on the walls of the temple offerings Rossi narrates certain miracles in general, testifying to health recovered, had been the care of those healed, they would perhaps be seen assimilated to as many forms as there are species of diseases which rage against the human members. They would besides have added votive gifts, whole little bodies wrapped in bands, the barren parents who, leaning on their knees before the tomb, so long persisted in asking the benefit of fruitfulness, until, full of hope, departing thence, they deserved afterward to exult with the gladness of the offspring sought for." The miracles which Rossi here at the end mentions in general, and which perhaps he had read in Feo Belcari and Paul Morigia, and other authors, we shall afterward from them relate one by one.

[72] Moreover blessed John Columbinus conferred on his clients many other benefits, and others which happened in the city of Lucca, which our Rossi indicates were passed over by him, while, part 2, chapter 9, §5, concerning the nuns of the Jesuatic Order at Lucca he writes thus: "It is not the least praise of the virgins devoted to God, that they cultivate the memory of blessed Columbinus, whom they acknowledge as founder, with pious veneration, try to imitate his virtues, defend his institute, strive to augment his cult, dedicate altars, hang up lamps, take care that his festal day be adorned with panegyrics, expose his relics, kept in precious reliquaries, to be adored: and that all these things are pleasing to God and to the Saint, frequent miracles testify, by which his image, and the oil burning in the lamps, and a particle of bone, and the invocation of his name are ennobled daily.

[73] he wholly omits. A catalogue of these and a prolix narration

I received from eyewitnesses, in case perhaps they should seem to be inserted into the volume. But since we abound in the abundance of others, to which lawful right gave credence, and conciliated authority, we more willingly withhold our hand and pen from those for a while, until, with equal censure and judgment, courage be added to writers to publish them." Since we have found those benefits of Lucca not yet hitherto published, it will suffice for us, after our Acts, from Feo Belcari and Paul Morigia, to exhibit in Latin those miracles to which the venerable antiquity and legitimate testimonies conciliated sure credence. § VI. The body of the Blessed one, long incorrupt and whole, is at last dissolved, and part of the head and bones once carried off by theft is still found in the diocese of Rimini. Since the body of blessed John, on account of the frequent miracles, From the preceding paragraph and the end of the Acts it is clear, that on account of the manifest miracles wrought not long after the death of blessed John Columbinus, the veneration of the faithful toward his holy relics was augmented, whose honorable elevation, prodigious integrity, and finally studiously procured corruption our Rossi, part 3, chapter 3, §1, sets forth in these words: "The number of miracles increasing daily, and the concourse of the people to the tomb, it came into the mind of the nuns of holy Abundius that it was their part to transfer the bones, as they thought, bare, fleshless, to a more honorable place, and to lay them in a nobler reliquary.

[75] was to be placed in a more honorable place, The pious virgins sought counsel from prudent men, of whom none was found who did not greatly approve and exhort to the work to be undertaken as quickly as possible. Deliberation being made, they judged that before all, Blasia, his former wife, should be admonished as was just, who conceived in mind incredible delight, and demanded for herself the charge of the expenses to be made, and in particular of the chest to be fabricated for receiving the holy relics. This was constructed with elegant and highly polished workmanship: in the middle of the outermost surface it pleased that an image of Christ the Lord Savior be depicted, to whom, as if attending, should be added at the right side another of blessed Columbinus, at the left another of St. Francis the Seraphic.

[76] it is found incorrupt and whole, The fame being spread through Siena, the day of the translation was appointed; and there came together from the secular clergy very many priests and ministers, who, robed in linen, should assist and perform the sacred ministry. When they came to the tomb, they exhumed the sarcophagus, and indeed both the flowers cast in when it was buried, the humidity of the earth had turned into slime and putrefaction; but the body covered by them they found wholly whole and incorrupt, like a fresh amaranth, as if a little before it had been buried, or rather lulled in a sweet sleep: the flesh soft and tender, the color vivid, the countenance akin to a smiling one, so that more clearly than the noonday light there might be plain, that pledge of innocence and vessel of honor, divinely asserted from the injuries of death, which does not cease to avenge the old fault even in the dead sons of Adam, and, having fed upon their limbs, turns them into decay and dust.

[77] They acknowledged the miracle, as many as fed their eyes on that living and pleasant spectacle, and by the sedulous care of the nuns and praised God the Most High, who did it, and at last to the inner part of the temple, accessible only to the nuns, they transferred the precious treasure, enclosed in a new chest, where it could more conveniently rest placidly and be devoutly venerated by the concourse of the throng.

But if at any time, in war-time, the virgins had to migrate into the city, and to escape the license of soldiery raving without; then indeed the most inward care and solicitude vexed them, both of protecting the whole sacred furniture, and of carrying away that heavenly deposit with them, which they held dearer than their own eyes, nor by any reason could they be induced to entrust it to the custody of others.

[78] Whence it came about that they commonly said everywhere that it would be more advisable that a certain seat within the walls in some nobler temple be designated, it was carefully preserved amid warlike tumults. than to be left in the country, whence the impending calamities from time to time compelled it to be carried and brought back, not without inconvenience and peril: which rumor, when it had reached the ears of the nuns, otherwise already touched with suspicion and fear lest this desire also should invade the minds of the chief kinsmen of the city, by secret deliberation they resolved to prepare a little vault in a hidden part of the church, and there, by a secret transportation, to guard the thing set aside from the curious inquiry of scouts, which was feared.

[79] The business was accomplished with the utmost taciturnity, until a certain simple guardian, and for about four lustra the quiet held and silence about the concealment: after which, again unlocked (uncertain on what occasion), the little coffin exhibited to the beholders no member even lightly violated, but whole on every side, as it had received it in its embrace. Nor could the continuance of divine indulgence in guarding that body long be concealed; but soon, celebrated by the discourses of many through that whole region, it augmented both the veneration of the Saint and the concourse to his tomb so much, that it bred weariness and trouble to John, son of Ambrose, then acting there as chaplain-servant (that is, I being interpreter), performing some external service pertaining to the chaplain: for a layman, and beneath the dignity of the levitical order, he proved his servitude to the Lord in holy simplicity, and abstained from the more sacred mysteries.

[80] He therefore, whether wearied of the daily concourse growing greater by the day and disturbing his quiet, wearied of the constant concourse, placed it under a drip, or fearing lest the religious discipline of the convent should gradually be hindered, preposterously provident, of set purpose is said to have fitted the coffin to a crack in the tiled roof, whence the rainy shower, by frequent dripping, the boards being hollowed out, at last loosened the frame of the body, and stripped that tabernacle, the trophy of grace, snatched from death, of its comeliness and beauty, and at the same time extinguished the thirst of seeing it in the throngs running up: only a single foot remained unharmed, which, gathered from the rest of the mass, laid in a silver case among the relics of that temple, is said to breathe a most sweet odor even to the present day, as testify very many, to whom it is a religious duty and consolation to visit, to smell, to venerate it."

[81] that it should be dissolved, as was done. I would have preferred to sail past this rock, and not to accuse the disciple, most loving of his Master, of either fault or ignorance by an unsavory invention; but the friendly writers did not excuse it, who handed down the truth of the deed and non-deed by no means painted, lest, which was easy to suppose, the dissolution voluntarily procured should be ascribed to the chance of the falling rain, or even to time destroying marbles. I judge that by Rossi here by "friendly writers" are indicated Belcari and Morigia, or perhaps even the more ancient biographers, whom I was not permitted to see. At least Feo Belcari in the Italian Life of the Blessed one, chapter 58, page 101, and Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book 1, chapter 66, page 107, narrate the prodigious integrity of the holy body and the voluntarily procured corruption of the same.

[82] Notable relics of blessed John Columbinus, But I wonder that Morigia and other more recent writers of the Acts made no mention of the notable relics of blessed John Columbinus, which in the year of Christ 1554 were translated to the parish church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, as we shall soon relate from the Italian manuscript instruments. Now that place, commonly called Gatteo, lies in Romagna between the river Pisciatello and the torrent Rubicon, not far from the town of Savignano, as I gather from the geographical maps of Italy which John Anthony Magini adorned. But how that holy treasure came to the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, we shall now briefly narrate from an Italian manuscript which our elders received in the year of Christ 1636.

[83] [after the middle of the sixteenth century carried off from the monastery of St. Abundius,] When Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence, in the year 1554 waged war against the Sienese, and invaded their dominion, it happened, that among other ruins and plunderings the monastery of St. Abundius near Siena was pillaged by military license. There served in the army of duke Cosimo John Baptist

Antonelli of Gatteo, who at the same time discharged the office of secretary with the most noble Count John Francis of Bagno. He, for the sake of curiosity, having entered the church of the said monastery, there found holy relics, either neglected by other soldiers or not noticed (namely the head and the shin-bone of blessed John Columbinus), which he immediately carried off with him to his lodging. Soon he admonished his fellow-citizens of Gatteo to send some faithful man, to whom he might deliver this sacred treasure, with which he desired to enrich his own country. There was sent to him a certain Matthew of Gatteo, who carried the said relics of the Blessed one, enclosed in a wooden chest, into his country, where they were placed in the parish church of St. Lawrence.

[84] were translated to the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, After some years the aforesaid John Baptist Antonelli wrote to his cousin Antony Antonelli that his conscience was burdened by the Spanish theologians (for he was then dwelling in Spain), and that he was especially urged by his confessor, to take care that those relics, stealthily carried off, be restored to the monastery of St. Abundius. Wherefore he begged his cousin to try with all zeal to obtain them, and to send them back to the aforesaid monastery of St. Abundius. But the bishops of Rimini, to whom the church of Gatteo is subject, always opposed this restitution, lest their diocese be deprived of such precious remains. To Antony, indicating this obstacle, John Baptist answered that, by the judgment of the same Spanish theologians, those holy relics could be secretly carried off, and thus restored, because they had been taken by theft. Hence, he urging this stealthy restitution, Antony bought two houses near the church of St. Lawrence, that secretly by night he might more easily carry off those relics. But God willed this purpose to lack success, that the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo might always be honored with so notable a treasure, which there up to the present day is honorably preserved.

[85] This narration is confirmed by an authentic testimony, as is confirmed by the testimony of the vicar of Siena, which Fabius Sergardi, doctor of laws, a noble of Siena, apostolic prothonotary, and vicar general in spirituals and temporals of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Lord Ascanius Piccolomini of Aragon, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishop of Siena, in the year 1635 published, and which, rendered by us from the Italian idiom into Latin, thus runs: "To all who shall see the present letters, greeting in the Lord. The most noble marquis Nicholas of Bagno, with the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend lord archbishop of Siena, by letters on the 14th day of the past month, urged that it be examined in the monastery of Saints Abundius and Abundantius, in which the body of blessed John Columbinus rests, whether there his head and the bones of his shins be found, because these parts of the holy body are said to exist in a certain place, pertaining to the aforesaid marquis, and on the occasion of the war of Siena are said to have been carried from that monastery by soldiers and to have come to that place.

[86] But since the aforesaid Lord Marquis, to that end asked that inquiry be made, who saw that those parts were lacking in the monastery of St. Abundius, that those holy relics might be more certainly known and affected with due honor, we give full and undoubted faith, that by the command of the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend Lord archbishop we went, together with our chancellor undersigned, and Ludovic Ugoni, surgeon of Siena, to the said monastery of St. Abundius, and there, having entered the church, in the presence of Lord Sergius Neri, confessor of the said nuns, and other witnesses specially chosen for this, inspected the chest in which the body of blessed John Columbinus is preserved, and after attentive consideration found that the head was lacking there, except the lower jaw. We also saw that the two bones of the shins were wanting there, and in a certain book of the aforesaid monastery, folio 20, it is noted, that when the nuns for the cause of war fled to the city of Siena, the head of the most glorious John with certain other relics was carried off. The same also assert the reverend mothers Virginia Placidi the abbess, and Abundia Landi, who testify that they had always heard that those relics were translated into the diocese of Rimini. In faith of all which, we have taken care that the present, written by our chancellor, be fortified with the greater seal, and for greater validity have subscribed with our own hand. Done in the palace of the archbishop of Siena on the 22nd day of December 1635. Fabius Sergardi, vicar general. In place of the ✠ seal ┈┈┈┈ Francis Barcius, notary and chancellor."

[87] Then follows another authentic instrument, which, turned from the Italian into Latin, thus runs: which the surgeon of Gatteo saw to be in the church of St. Lawrence "On the 26th day of February, in the year 1636, I, Hannibal Godenti, surgeon of Gatteo, give faith, that I was requested by the very Reverend Lord Leonard Fanantius, rector of the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, to visit certain relics which are said to be of blessed John Columbinus, founder of the Jesuati, and which rest in the aforesaid church of St. Lawrence, and that they were by me, in the presence of the aforesaid Lord Rector, and also of Francis Rinalducci, steward of the most illustrious Lord Marquis of Bagno, and Francis Fabri, diligently inspected. But all things being attentively considered, I found, that there was there the bone of the left shin and the head, to which only is lacking the lower jaw together with the chin. Wherefore, being requested, I drew up the present instrument on the day and year abovesaid, and for greater faith I, Hannibal abovesaid, subscribed with my own hand."

[88] he testifies by an authentic instrument and by oath; To this instrument is subjoined the testimony of a public notary, who writes thus: "In the name of God, amen. On the 28th day of February in the year 1636 at Gatteo, in the presence of me the notary and the witnesses undersigned, the abovesaid Hannibal Godenti, present, testifies and affirms that the preceding instrument was drawn up by him and written by his own hand, and acknowledges it under oath to be his, and in every better manner in which he can, asked that it be strengthened by my testimony.

Done in the house of the very Reverend Lord Leonard Fanantius, rector of the parish church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, within the said place, according to his petitions, in the presence there of the abovesaid Lord Rector, and John Baptist Baro of Gatteo, witnesses employed for the aforesaid. And I, Philip Dichius, public notary of the said place, being requested concerning the aforesaid, wrote, and signed with my accustomed sign, as in the margin requested. In place of the ✠ sign." From all these instruments, compared with each other, I judge that it is in no way to be doubted, that the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo possesses the true relics of our Blessed one.

[89] but of the other distribution of the remains we know little. Charles Bartholomew Piazza in the Sanctuary or Roman Menology at the 31st day of July notes, that a part of the haircloth and garment of blessed John Columbinus is kept in the monastery of St. Martha near the Roman college. I suspect that similar remains of the blessed Man were communicated to other churches and monasteries in Italy, although a certain notice of them has not come to us. At least I do not doubt that some particles of the holy bones or other relics of their blessed Founder were obtained by very many convents of the Jesuati and Jesuatesses, whose institute, privileges, and other things pertaining to that Order I shall set forth in the following paragraphs. § VII. The origin, nomenclature, exercises, and dress of the Jesuati. Blessed John Columbinus, converted to God From the Acts to be given below it will be easily understood how several, by the example of blessed John Columbinus, embraced an austere manner of living, subjected themselves to his discipline, and thus gradually there coalesced a company of disciples, which afterward grew into an Order approved by the Church. Our Philip Bonanni in the Catalogue of the religious Orders, part 1, num. 82, thus exhibits to us a historical synopsis of this religious congregation: "In the year 1354 in the city of Siena was begun the order which was called of the Jesuati, because in their mouth was frequent the sweet name of Jesus. Its author was blessed John Columbinus of Siena, whose wonderful conversion to God is related to have happened on account of the reading of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, upon which by chance he had fallen.

[91] He therefore, suddenly changed, exercised himself in good works: instituted an Order. whence, moved by his example, certain men joined themselves to him, all of whom Urban V, benignly embracing them as a new offspring of Christ, adorned with many privileges. They obtained the dress and the approbation of their institute in the year 1367, which afterward eighteen Roman Pontiffs are said to have confirmed. It served under the rule of St. Augustine; yet it had constitutions composed by one of them, afterward elected bishop. It was also called the Order of apostolic clerics, or of St. Jerome of the Jesuati, because that Saint by unanimous consent they chose for themselves as patron, by the decree of Alexander VI, in the year 1499. But in the year 1668 Clement IX, by the constitution ROMANUS PONTIFEX, for just causes suppressed and abolished them."

[92] Concerning these Antony Corsetti wrote, who in question concerning whom Antony Corsetti, 4 says, that they received for a habit a white tunic and a square hood, which was let down from the neck to the shoulders, from Urban V, in the year 1367, and that by their protector a gray cloak to be worn over it was conferred on them. Outside the house, in the primitive institution, in place of the hood they wore a certain kind of white covering like a sleeve, by which they demonstrated the contempt of the world. But Urban VIII, by the constitution ONEROSA, granted the faculty of wearing a hood of the color of the cloak, the white one being cast off, which they had before been wont to wear over the shoulders, and in that form which the other mendicants use. This epitome must be explained a little more distinctly and fully.

[93] First of all, our Bonanni errs from the true chronology, Philip Bonanni, Polydore Vergil, while he attaches the origin of this Order to the year 1354: for blessed John Columbinus was only in the year 1355 converted to a better life, as Feo Belcari in the Italian Life, chapter 2, and our Acts, num. 13, testify. Nor less does Polydore Vergil hallucinate, book 7 On the Inventors of Things, chapter 4, in the Strasbourg edition of the year 1606, where, page 434, he has this: "In the fifth year of the same Urban, which was of human salvation 1368, the sect of the Jesuati (he had better called it a congregation or company) arose at Siena." But our Blessed one in the year 1368 had already migrated from this life. Moreover the fifth year of Urban the Pontiff does not agree with the year of Christ 1368, as in Raynaldus and other chronologists can everywhere be seen. I do not wish here to refute other writers who fell into the same or a similar error of time.

[94] Nearer to the chronological origin of the Jesuatic Order came Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus,

Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus, while in Ennead 9 of his Historical Rhapsody, book 9, volume 2 of the Basel edition, page 822, concerning this congregation he writes thus: "In the fifth year of the pontificate of this Urban (it was the sixty-sixth above the three-hundredth and thousandth of human salvation) the devotion of the Jesuati arose at Siena. They were gathered from the beginning in households, clad in a simple habit, men of much innocence and piety, seeking their livelihood by labor and work. These Urban the Pontiff, called to him at Rome (Feo Belcari and our Acts narrate that this was done at Viterbo), questioned concerning their ceremony and manner of life; he learned the whole matter and approved it, and granted that they should use a white tunic, with a white covering of the head, with a square lappet let down from the neck to the shoulders.

[95] They are girded besides with a leathern girdle, and, their feet otherwise bare, they protect them on the lower part with a wooden clog: and other writers made mention, it was granted thereupon that they should wear a cloak of Canusian wool thrown over the tunic, called from the beginning apostolic clerics. These are neither initiated into the sacred orders, nor celebrate the solemnities of the Masses; they only give themselves to prayer. They are called Jesuati, because the name of Jesus, the supreme king, is frequent in their mouth. There were authors of so pious a thing (as some write)

John Columbinus and Francis Vincent, both Sienese, both referred into the number of the Blessed. There followed thereupon John of Tossignano and Antony of Siena; the latter prelate of Foligno, the former of Ferrara, both of notable sanctity. Most of the convents of the Jesuati are in Italy in number." Whether Francis Vincent, who is here said to be referred into the number of the Blessed, obtains anywhere a legitimate cult, we desire to learn from the Sienese.

[96] and from which Jacobus Philippus of Bergamo saw two illustrious prelates. For the rest, concerning blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, whose Acts on the 24th day of July we illustrated, and concerning Antony Bettini, bishop of Foligno, of whose cult we also doubt, Jacobus Philippus of Bergamo, a contemporary author, book 14 of the Supplement of the Chronicles in the Paris edition of the year 1535, after similar things said about the beginnings of the Jesuati, folio 330 verso, adds this: "But now, wonderfully multiplied, and marvelously diffused through all Italy, since they are men of the best life, they are held in great price everywhere, and although they say only the Lord's Prayers for the canonical hours under silence, nor is any promoted in any way to the sacred Orders, nevertheless very many most learned men have emerged, who were famous by a singular privilege of erudition and holiness; for which grace several were raised by the Roman Pontiffs to the dignities of episcopate, of whom I in former years saw a bishop of Ferrara, and another at Foligno, a city of the duchy of Spoleto."

[97] Our Rossi teaches, The authors praised in this paragraph hand down that the disciples of blessed John Columbinus were called Jesuati, because they frequently pronounced the most holy name of Jesus. But our Acts, num. 284, assign a more wonderful origin of this appellation, and attribute it to the prodigious speech of infants. Whence our Rossi in his Triumph, part 4, chapter 15, §2, concerning this matter thus discourses: "To this so frequent address of the holy name and fervid preaching it pleased some to refer the origin of the splendid nomenclature of the Jesuati, which began to be heard at Viterbo, and thence to grow frequent through the whole world.

[98] whence the name of the Jesuati arose, But that had its beginning higher up, as above, from the truer narration of the historians, we showed, which to repeat again it is superfluous to insist upon. From it only is it to be recalled, that not by men, but by God, moving the tongues of infants through the angels, it was given and adhered thereafter to the Order, while the others imposed from elsewhere by disuse grew obsolete: for they were sometimes named Apostolic clerics and Brothers of St. Jerome, because they were lovers of solitude and penance, which that eminent doctor testifies more than once was loved by him amid the pleasant things of sacred studies. Then he subjoins other things on the same subject, which here for the sake of brevity I pass over. But as to what pertains to the appellation of Brothers of St. Jerome, concerning that title the constitution of Alexander VI, volume 1 of the Bullarium, from page 398, may be seen.

[99] and concerning their exercises Moreover the same Rossi, part 2 of the Triumph, chapter 3, thus describes the first form and exercises of that nascent congregation: "And because, as we noted above,

Columbinus did not look to this, that he should institute a religious Order, which should be governed after the manner of the others approved by the Church; therefore at that time he had taken no form of dress as a badge which should indicate the state of religion, or display a profession: nor was there a convent distinguished with its own cells, or arranged with workshops; but a poor house afforded a dwelling, near the monastery of St. Abundius, to which after the day's labors they came together, and spent most of the night in prayer, penance, pious conversations, and thence on the following day returned to their accustomed exercises the more alertly, as the quiet and tranquil sleep and savor of those vigils had more richly ministered fuel to the flame swelling in their breasts."

The other exercises of the first Jesuati and their vile garments from the Acts to be given after this Commentary will easily be gathered.

[100] The praised Rossi, part 2, chapter 19, §3, concerning their garments, garments which Pope Urban V reduced to a common and religious form, thus discourses: "The habit therefore (that it may be noted in passing for the sake of those inquiring its origin) is venerable even by this name, that by the vicar of Christ, held for holy in life and after death, it was prescribed and given as a gift to blessed Columbinus and his fellows: such, namely, as befitted their condition, and the excellence of the nascent company, gathered from the flower of nobility and of holiness, and about to rise to that number, to which that nakedness of a few would seem little congruous and by no means becoming, unless garments consonant to their state and religious profession should be provided for the future.

[101] Such were a full-length garment of snowy color, an index of interior candor and sincerity, and he discourses on the cowl, which it befits to proceed outwardly from the heart of those wearing it, and to accompany their words and deeds and in a manner to clothe them. There is added likewise a white cowl, not that simple and short one, which, attached to the collar of the garment, is wont to be drawn up and down to cover the head, but one which terminates the exomis, gradually tightening its looseness upward, and serves for wrapping the head at will or as occasion requires; yet this was not worn expanded, as it is wont by travelers and certain cenobites, let down over the arms and breast, but narrower and tighter, flowing from the neck down through the throat, moderately covered the shoulders, nor extended itself to the front part, which manner of covering the head, brought into custom, was preserved up to the year 1606." That these things may be more easily understood, we exhibit an engraved image of blessed John Columbinus, such as we received it from Italy, and to which for the sake of clarity we added only the cowl from another effigy of the same Blessed one.

BLESSED JOHN COLUMBINUS OF SIENA.

I do not know whether this is the true effigy of our Blessed one; but at least from it appears what was the form of the Jesuatic habit, which up to the year 1606 persevered.

[102] in which covering of the head, Our Rossi in the same place thus continues: "Then, faculty being given by Paul the Fifth of promoting a certain number to the sacred Orders, and of celebrating the divine Office by the common ecclesiastical rite in the choir, it seemed good to the fathers in the general chapter of the 30th of March to decree, that thereafter over the left shoulder should be worn that white epomium, not unlike the almuces which the canons, coming into the choir, place on the arm or the left shoulder." Hippolytus Helyot in the French History of the monastic, religious, and military Orders, volume 3, page 407, represents a Jesuat clothed in that manner, and wearing his cowl on the left shoulder.

[103] with the consent of Pope Urban VIII "At last, Urban the Eighth consenting," says Rossi in the same place, "the form of that thing was changed, and turned into a hood of the same color as the cloak, such as are in use among the cowled religious; because this kind of garment seemed more to befit clerics and priests, than that old singular one, which antiquity loved in laymen, perhaps not destined to displease in clerics, both for other reasons, which, brought into counsel and diligently examined, prevailed over those condemning the novelty, and indeed especially for this, that to those about to go forth from the shade of private life and abject exercises into the light of pulpits and chairs, that recent dress seemed more convenient and far more becoming."

[104] some change was made. Urban VIII, the Pontiff, volume 4 of the Bullarium, page 291, granted to the Jesuati this change of the cowl, after other things, in these words: "By the counsel of our venerable brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred rites, to the same Brethren (the Jesuati), that, casting off the hood of white color, which they have hitherto worn over their shoulders, they may freely and lawfully wear another on the head, of the color similar to their cloak, and in that form which the other mendicants use, by apostolic authority by the tenor of the present we grant and indulge, and impart license and faculty." Our Bonanni in the Catalogue of the religious Orders, before chapter or number 82, exhibits an image of a Jesuat, who bears in his right hand a book, in his left a basket. What those signs mean, I do not know. Moreover I do not grasp how the covering of the head, which is there depicted, can be called a cowl or hood endowed with that form which the other mendicants use, since it comes nearest to the form of the biretta or square cap, which clerics use even today. § VIII. The progress of the Jesuatic Order, its rules, statutes, customs, and privileges. The virtues of the first Jesuati Blessed John Columbinus, taken from the living, left many heirs of his virtues, who with joined minds resolved to follow the manner of life begun, says Rossi, part 3 of the Triumph, chapter 4, §2, and to repeat their former labors, and to institute the exercises of piety. No domestic discipline was indeed established at that time by any law; but charity diffused in the hearts of all, and ardent vows of serving and pleasing God, the sole law constituting their manners, restraining the motions of appetites, begetting obedience, humility, chastity, and making them the golden dwellings of the beginning of the Order, that is, the habitations of virtues, of all the angels, and even of the Holy Spirit, which afterward widely through Italy, according to the prediction of John prophesying among the living, were propagated. Further, how illustrious propagators the blessed Founder had of his Order, may be seen in Feo Belcari, part 2, Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book 2, and John Baptist Rossi, part 5, who with deserved praises extol the chief disciples of blessed John Columbinus, and other notable men of the Jesuatic Order.

[106] For us it will here suffice to transcribe their general eulogy, they are praised by various men, composed by blessed John of Tossignano, who, a witness greater than all exception, in our Rossi, part 2, chapter 22, §4, thus exhorts his fellow Jesuati: "Come now, brethren, we have with a brief narration touched on those long beginnings of our fraternity. By these few at least, revolving with a most watchful mind how great was in our elders the contempt of the world and the things that are the world's, the hatred of self, the zeal of fervid charity, the love of heavenly things, the despising of earthly ones, the elimination of allurements, the embrace of penal things, the flight of honors, the desire of reproaches, and of the other things of this kind, roused salubriously by these so great examples of the fathers from the inertia of our body, let us rise to imitate those things, and, looking up to the heights of the fathers' virtues, blushing at least at the depths of our lukewarmness, let us leap up. Snatched from the power of darkness and translated into the candor of the true light through Jesus Christ our redeemer, let us firmly lean, more than fully, upon his cross and reproaches, his pains and sorrows, and to his exemplar let us compose the dissipated and relaxed manners of our conscience."

[107] Then the same blessed writer, concerning the approbation and privileges of his Order, adds this in the same place: their institute is approved by the Roman Pontiffs, "Lastly, to all these we superadd this one thing, that when Urban V of most blessed memory had departed this mortal life, this very fraternity of the poor, going to the Roman court, presented itself in the presence of his successor Gregory XI; which being admitted to the kissing of his feet, a certain notable man and decurion assisting there, once a courtier of the aforesaid Urban, directing his words to the Apostolic one, said: 'These are, most blessed Father, those whom your predecessor Urban ordered to be clothed.' To whose words the Pontiff, answering, said: 'And I confirm it.' Again after him the other Roman Pontiffs presiding over the Apostolic See, gratuitously indulging to this same fraternity some benefits and privileges, always showed themselves propitious and favorable, God working. To the praise and glory of our redeemer Jesus Christ," etc.

[108] Although for the first disciples of blessed John Columbinus no domestic laws were established, and the Order gradually grows, as we saw above, yet afterward blessed John of Tossignano prescribed certain fixed rules to the Jesuati, as we learn from John Baptist Rossi, whom here again we safely follow as guide, since he diligently surveyed the ancient monuments of the Jesuati. He therefore, part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §3 and following, praises the pious followers of the Jesuatic Order, and concerning their institute thus discourses: "This their most fortunate lot yields indeed to the glory of God, the author of all goods, who bestowed the grace and gave the increase; but it pleased to derive a part of it also upon his familiar Columbinus, who planted the vine and watered it, surviving in the wave of salutary counsels and operations, and, discharging a pious intercession with the Godhead, went on to foster and promote his cultivators, whom he left after himself like himself.

[109] By their examples and the sanctity of their manners moved and by their discourses instructed, many, whom the following age gave to the young Order, treading in the fresh footsteps of the elders, came together into that form of life which follows the pious norm of living, which was an admiration to the inhabitants of the places through which their dwellings were propagated, and them not as men, but as angels, under a human figure covering something greater than humanity, they looked up to and venerated. For, removed from the cares of the world and all its vanity, one care alone urged them, that in the law of the Lord they should meditate day and night, and that the times which distinguished the contemplation of the mind from the action of the hands should never interrupt them from attention to heavenly things: for as scarcely any time was excepted from them for leisure, so neither was an end imposed on meditation, as Cassian testifies of the Egyptian monks: for at the same time exercising the virtues of body and soul, they equaled the wages of the exterior man with the emoluments of the interior.

[110] and observes domestic discipline, To the slippery motions of the heart and the unstable fluctuation of thoughts fixing beforehand the weights of works, as a certain tenacious and immovable anchor, to which the volubility and wandering of the heart being fastened, within the cloisters of the monastery, as in a most faithful port, it might be contained; and thus, intent only on spiritual meditation and the custody of thoughts, it not only would not suffer the ever-watchful mind to fall to the consent of any depraved suggestion, but would also guard it from all superfluous and idle thought; so that it could not easily be discerned whether for the sake of spiritual meditation they unceasingly exercised the work of their hands, or for the sake of the dignity of the work they acquired so illustrious an advancement of the spirit and the light of knowledge," etc. The glory of which both active and contemplative life penance guarded, constant in the vileness of food, dress, bed, and the rest of the affliction of the body, especially by the scourging which no day did not see redoubled, for recollecting and impressing on their hearts the memory of the scourges and stripes of Christ, which it was fitting to have indicated in general, that we may argue the sanctity and glory of the root from the branches, according to the Apostle's reasoning.

[111] prescribed by blessed John of Tossignano, For the rest, the domestic discipline and singular deeds of the Jesuati living in his time were handed down more fully by John of Tossignano in a little work published on that subject, which, as it happened to me to peruse, I seemed to be reading a certain Basil or Jerome prescribing rules to monks, except that he prescribed not so much a rule as a custom and manner of living. Indeed I have called blessed those who under such a standard, and under the standard-bearing Triumpher, served, and were heirs of that spirit, which, transmitted into the breasts of his athletes, went on to grow warm.

[112] and suitable to lay brothers, By which spirit, diffused through the whole body, the Jesuatic Order was governed, and thus depended on the nod of its superiors by common confederation, yet so that it was not immune from the external command of the ecclesiastical pastors. For that little flock and holy nation and royal priesthood, rejoicing to offer among the profane victims of seculars those of humility to the Creator, since it abstained from the sacred Orders, needed the help of priests, by whom both the sacraments should be administered, and other services of offices rendered, to be expected from no other source than from hands anointed with chrism and holy.

[113] to whom afterward the Roman Pontiffs Every convent was indeed furnished with a domestic chapel destined for prayer; but neither were altars erected for immolation, nor were there any Eucharistic reservatories, nor furniture due to a sanctuary, nor any other ornament similar to that familiar to the temples dedicated to God: therefore they had to go outside both to hear the sacred rite and to receive the holy communion. Nay, even the very funerals had to be carried outside the houses, and a priest to be called, who should prepare the dying by the last mysteries for them; and, what by blessed John of Tossignano was not dissembled, if in any matter, for instance a fast, a vow, or similar things, there was need of a dispensation, it was sought from an external superior. All which things, although at the beginning, in the fewness of the fellows, were tolerated without perturbation; yet with the progress of time, the number being increased, carried with them those inconveniences, which it seemed good to the Apostolic See to meet.

[114] And so by Eugene the Fourth it was promptly and willingly granted, granted various privileges, that in their private chapels the holy sacrifice of the Mass should be made and the venerable Host be kept for the singular consolation and fruit of the adoring families: then that there should be a free election of a suitable confessor, no previous license of the bishops being required, and whatever other things seemed conducive and necessary to the quiet and decorum of the Order: and other Pontiffs, not fewer than twenty, confirmed and augmented the privileges, among whom Julius II, that they should use the Augustinian form of solemn vows in their inauguration after the novitiate; and, that all handle for controversies might be cut off, Leo the Tenth declared that the supreme superior of the Augustinians had no right over the Jesuati.

[115] Of all which the very diplomas give faith, recorded on ancient and recent parchments, laid up in the archives, and for the most part printed among writers and exposed to public reading: [which are partly published in the Roman Bullarium, partly preserved in the archives.] which to enumerate one by one might perhaps be the care of him who should undertake to write a universal history of the Religion, not ours, unless we should wish to digress, we who taste these things by snatches, aiming at this, that we may show to redound to the glory of the blessed Founder whatever of honor and benefit upon his sons so many and so illustrious names of the successors of Peter conferred. Various privileges of this Order can be read in Laërtius Cherubinus in the Bullarium.

[116] The Jesuati up to the year of Christ 1606 remained in the lay state, Pope Paul V forbade the Jesuati the art of distilling liquors and before that time they exercised various offices not abhorrent from this their institute. Whence Bernardinus Scardeonius in his Paduan Antiquity, book 2, class 6, page 113, concerning the Jesuati of his time writes thus: "These indeed, gathered into one under the norm of obedience, as pure and simple laymen, both by begging, and by carrying tapers in the funerals of the dead, and by distilling medicinal waters, procure for themselves a livelihood sufficient enough." On account of this last exercise of distillation, in certain parts of Italy they were commonly by the people called "gli padri dell' aqua vita" (the fathers of the water of life). But when Paul V, the Pontiff, by constitution 16, otherwise 13, permitted some of them to be promoted to the sacred Orders, then at the same time, in volume 3 of the Bullarium, page 196, §10, he decreed, that the brothers themselves, initiated into some sacred Order, mindful of their dignity, should in no way give themselves to the exercise of distilling waters, nor mix themselves in the sales of them.

[117] But to the laymen the same Pontiff, in the following paragraph, prescribes, that the other regulars of the same Order, or rather restricted it, who have not been promoted to Orders, and from whom that exercise is not taken away, should thenceforth by no pretext sell or otherwise deliver such distilled waters, which they have hitherto made, to women, nor have them for sale or expose them; but only that they may sell them separately from others to apothecaries or other particular persons. Since Paul V in this same constitution of the year 1606 had restricted the number of those to be initiated into the sacred Orders to a hundred, afterward in the year 1611 he granted, that not only a hundred, but all the brothers of the aforesaid congregation, otherwise fit and capable for this, might be promoted to the same sacred Orders, as in the volume of the Bullarium just cited, page 198, is related.

[118] when some of them to the sacred Orders Concerning this chief privilege of the Jesuatic congregation the praised Rossi, part 4, chapter 15, §5, thus makes mention: "But indeed among the first things is to be reckoned what we see conferred on the Order in our age as an honor and ornament, that from the obscure state of laymen it should migrate to the honesty and light of clerics, and, the darkness of ignorance being deserted, transfer itself to the light of knowledge. For Paul the Fifth, not ignorant that men learned and upright are far more useful to the Church of God, than those who are occupied in the shadowy labors of external things by their institute, opened the way to the priesthood, which gaped at the cloisters of the Jesuati, and to its entrance the doors were unlocked to the good muses and to wisdom, lest it remain unlettered and rude: to which indulgence of munificence not prayers only or supplications induced the mind of the most prudent Pontiff, but the weight of reasons which persuaded that a transition of this kind would be salutary to the Church, and honorable to religion."

[119] and permitted the studies of letters to be promoted, Then by various arguments he proves that knowledge does not hinder sanctity; nay rather he contends that chastity and other virtues are strengthened by the assiduous study of letters, and at last thus concludes: "The counsels of the more recent wise men are therefore to be approved, which added so much of adornment to the pristine humility of the old Jesuati, that they introduced an ascent to literature and the reception of the sacred Orders, and substituted priests for laymen, learned and erudite men for the unskilled, when they resolved that the youths, removed from the workshops of servile arts, should not act as distillers or weavers, but should give their effort to holy Scripture and theology for the future, and traverse the courses of the sciences accustomed to the other Orders, formed by which, a riper age would go forth from the shade of private exercise into the sun of the most honorable offices: for part ascend the pulpits in the temples, part the chairs in the palaestras of letters; some lean upon writing books; all expend themselves for their own and their neighbor's salvation according to the measure of each one's talent received from God: and thus both the prefectures were ennobled, and the religious discipline confirmed, and the offices and functions of each, from laborious and abject, were rendered more tranquil and more comely."

[120] to which change certain elder Jesuati had before opposed themselves. But Rossi does not dissemble, that certain Jesuati first opposed this change, while in the part and chapter just cited, §8, toward the end, he records this: "Columbinus's boat, enjoying placid tranquillity in this port, certain lighter waves of domestic troubles began again to agitate, which, however, a breeze of prudence and charity, gently breathing, was able in a short time to still. For some, whether wearied of the humility of the lay life, whether allured by the dignity of the priesthood, said that it did not befit the Jesuati to be any longer kept from it. Others, especially the elders, asserted that the old institute was altogether to be adhered to, both bringing strong reasons for their part, and subjecting them to the arbitration of prudent and holy men, by whose counsels and answers the contention was lulled, and quiet restored to the society, held a long course of years: and, lest it be broken for the future, the wheel of voluble inconstancy had to be stopped by the brake of Apostolic decrees, and the entrance to the priesthood opened to breasts of the purest ambition: whose most salutary change the causes and advantages numbered above it would be superfluous to bring in again." Perhaps those elders feared, lest the priestly honor, and knowledge, which according to the Apostle puffs up, should bring some harm to the pristine humility and religious simplicity.

[121] But the already often-praised Rossi shows that this fear was vain, Rossi sets forth the pious manners of the Jesuati, since he asserts that the old observance of the rules flourished after these things, and thus describes the domestic discipline of the Jesuati in the same place, §6: "And provision was made against the perils of arrogance and vanity, which sometimes sprout from the good root of the sciences as unhappy germs; and remedies were applied to foster the charity which builds up: of which the most efficacious is the frequent use of the Sacraments; namely, never intermitted on any Lord's Day through the whole year by those who lack the priesthood, and repeated on several other feasts, whether common to the Church or proper to the Order. A fitting preparation indeed for the lofty and holy mystery is the institution of life and the tenor of actions dedicated to the worship of the Godhead: for all the hours of day and night are so divided, that to prayer the chief, to action the rest, are designated.

[122] Morning and evening they come together to meditate. Twice a day to the examination of conscience, the domestic discipline, as a thing opportune for the interior worship, they sedulously apply themselves. The canonical hours by the Roman rite are performed at set times; and in winter indeed they anticipate the sun's rising by a long space; but in summer they never follow it. But how piously and devoutly they are preluded! When the last stroke of the bell has called the family to the oratory, all, prostrate on their knees, five times run through in a low voice the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic salutation, and the Salve Regina, to which an ample remission of offenses was granted by the supreme Pontiffs. Then with little iron chains they beat their bodies, while they pronounce the fiftieth psalm MISERERE and the hundred and twenty-ninth DE PROFUNDIS, and a prayer for the dead: which kind of prelude, on the same order and tenor exactly, they repeat toward evening, except that to the morning scourging they subjoin the litanies of the Saints, but to the evening one those of the most blessed Virgin.

[123] By this concert of stripes and mournful prayers, being tempered, their minds being roused, the accustomed prayers, the Matin hours are begun, and these being finished, the priest goes forth first to perform the sacred rite, at which the rest are present and offer the sacrifice by prayer. To which if you add the horary prayers of the Virgin, the daily exercise, the Office of the dead, and private formulas of praying according to each one's disposition, a more precious portion of the years is assigned to heavenly conversation and intimacy with God; the rest is expended on the studies of letters and honorable occupations, undertaken out of obedience or charity; a small part is reserved for rest and relaxation.

[124] Nor is to be omitted the notable piety and cult toward the blessed Virgin, love toward the Mother of God, with which the minds of the novices are imbued, and toward which the zeal of the veterans spontaneously inclines. For guarding it, besides the singular exercises left to the arbitration of each, the Saturday light of all the weeks is chosen, on which a litanic invocation of her a little more solemn than that daily one of which we spoke is instituted. There is no house in the whole Order which does not rejoice in this custom and pious rite; no one of the household who does not esteem it as akin to a sin to be absent at the set time from this solemnity.

[125] For the rest, all their external things, consonant with these, breathe honesty and religion. and the good governance of the Order, Modesty adorns their dress; temperance ministers their food, and penance moderates it with frequent fasts. Poverty dispenses all things common and necessary for the use of life; it permits to none the possession or free disposition of his own. Silence demands its own hours for itself. To peace and concord no time is circumscribed. From the custody of the laws and rules no one is exempt, although these are milder, and can be kept by lovers without the guilt of fault: on violators those who preside impose a penalty; and over all presides one man, elected by the suffrages of the chapter every six years, in which four assessors are given to him, whom they call definitors, because with them lies the right and power of defining the business pertaining to the Order; and to each of these the care of governing one province is committed, yet so that the supreme command is with the general superior. And so the whole government is so aristocratic that it is akin to the monarchic, and therefore the best.

[126] which was propagated even into France, These are the chief things which in the present paragraph I had undertaken to set forth. Hippolytus Helyot in the History of the monastic, religious, and military Orders, volume 3, chapter 55, records certain other statutes of the Jesuatic Order and peculiar customs of fasting, where also toward the end of the same chapter you will find cited the Annals of the city of Toulouse, in which it is narrated how five Jesuati in the year 1425 came to Toulouse, and there in little cells, distant by a certain space from one another, after the manner of the Camaldolese, dwelt. And this is the only family of Jesuati which we know to have dwelt outside Italy. § IX. The institute of the Jesuati long assailed in vain, and at last extinguished by Pontifical authority. Since, according to the Apostle, all who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus the Order of the Jesuati, shall suffer persecution, the same lot of the elect befell the Jesuati: for about the year 1425 under Martin V the Pontiff a grievous storm arose against them at Bologna. The Jesuati were brought to the tribunal of the bishop of Bologna, as those who claimed for themselves the rights of Regulars, whereas they had neither a rule nor a religion approved by the Apostolic See. Grave men and illustrious for a great fame of doctrine favored the parts of the accusers. But blessed John of Tossignano solidly refuted the arguments of the adversaries, and won the cause, as in his Life, volume V of July, from page 805, has been said more fully.

[128] according to Rossi, Of this vexation, unless I am mistaken, our Rossi treats, part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §8, while there, after other things, he writes that certain ill-occupied men began first to gnaw with a canine tooth the innocent company of the gentle men, as idle, and useful in nothing to the Christian commonwealth; but then even by writings they tried to accuse them and to persuade that it should be utterly dissolved, and that there should not be fostered in the Church a monster conflated of a people neither secular or lay, nor religious or clerical, and following, by a rite unusual to the other congregations, a new kind of life, dissonant from the sacred canons.

Which injuries indeed the disciples of Christ rejoiced to bear patiently in silence and hope; but the Lord roused the spirit of upright and wise men, who took up the patronage of innocence, and spoke sharply for the silent, and wrote learnedly for those meriting praise.

[129] More troublesome seemed the vexation of certain cenobites, of whom some in jest, some in earnest, objected the same things, and this especially, that, no profession being emitted, assailed by various men they were not to be reckoned among the religious; nor again to be numbered among the clerics, because by their institute they lacked Orders. And to confute these there had been enough and more than enough both the approbations of the supreme Pontiffs, and the very manner of living most like the Apostolic, and the sanctity of those professing it, declared by so many and manifest indications. But God willed to act as patron of the cause, who had given the Founder of the Order, that, miracles being produced, the mouths of those speaking should be stopped. To these he subjoins a witty example of this matter, which we shall a little below relate from him.

[130] Meanwhile the Roman Pontiff seems to have taken up the patronage of the Jesuati, Pope Martin V and on that occasion in the year 1428 to have published a constitution, which, in volume 1 of the Bullarium, page 262, is read to this tenor: "Martin, bishop, servant of the servants of God. To the future memory of the matter. The petition of a pious will, by which certain beloved sons, poor men of Christ, commonly called Jesuati, leading voluntary poverty, devoted to the zeal of a pious life, in diverse oratories, houses, or places of Italy, the worldly allurements being cast off, serve the Lord with the adoption of the voluntary poverty of the virtues, not undeservedly deserves that the Apostolic See should foster them, their houses, oratories, and places, with benign favors, and follow them with special graces, especially in those things which regard the state and quiet of their souls.

[131] Indeed on the part of the said poor men there was lately exhibited to us a petition containing, seems to protect them, that although they, desiring to place their treasures in the heavens, and that from their laudable actions they might draw others by example to living well and rightly, in diverse places or houses, which for their perpetual use and habitation they built by the pious alms and suffrages of the faithful of Christ, render devout and sedulous service to the Lord, toward whom very many, on account of their laudable life and virtuous works, bear an affection of special devotion, yet it sometimes happens that the poor men themselves are unduly molested by the inquisitors of heretical pravity residing at that time in those parts, and by those deputed by them, under diverse pretended occasions and feigned colors. Wherefore on the part of the same poor men it was humbly supplicated to us, that for their peace and tranquillity we would deign, out of Apostolic benignity, to provide with paternal charity concerning these things.

[132] We therefore, desiring that the said poor men may the more quietly and devoutly serve the Most High in the spirit of humility, and to receive them into his protection, the more they know themselves fortified by the richer grace of the same See, inclined to supplications of this kind, the aforesaid poor men, present and future, and their oratories, houses, and places built and to be built, wherever they shall be constituted, with their persons, rights, appurtenances, and also their possessions, lands, things, and goods, which in any places they at present lawfully possess, and in the future, the Lord giving, by similar suffrages of the faithful, or otherwise by just titles, shall be able to obtain, under the protection of blessed Peter and of this

See, and also of the Ordinaries of the places, in whose cities and dioceses the aforesaid houses, oratories, and places stand, up to the good pleasure of the same See, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present, we receive and take as our own." Then the accustomed clauses follow.

[133] Nay rather it pleased the divine goodness to protect his faithful servants, and God himself and to confound their detractors or mockers by a manifest prodigy, which Bernardinus Scardeonius, canon of Padua, book 2 of the Paduan Antiquities, class 6, our Martin Delrio, book 2 of the Magical Disquisitions, question 10, in the Mainz edition of the year

1603, volume 1, page 118, and finally Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book 2, chapter 51, committed to writing and left to the memory of posterity. Our most often praised and to-be-praised Rossi, from these three writers whom he cites in the margin, wove an elegant narration of the same miracle, which we shall now describe from him.

[134] defended the obedience of the Jesuati, exploded by others, Therefore, part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §8, he thus narrates this prodigious history: "The superior of the convent of the Jesuati at Padua at Holy Spirit's, Jacobinus by name, a man exceedingly pious and prudent, had invited to dine with him, for the sake of fostering charity, a certain preacher of the Augustinian family, and at that time the moderator of the monastery; and after the meal, exhibited with religious liberality, he was striving to refresh him with pleasant conversation; whom, however, that one would have disturbed with untimely contention, had not the prudence of the host, by a device thought out not so much by his own genius, as sent from heaven, met the prelude of the strife. For, having said many things magnificently about the subject of the merit of obedience, he turned thither, that he boldly asserted the Jesuati destitute of it, because their vow lacked solemnity, without which, in his judgment, the word of obedience is to be reckoned an empty title, and not to be esteemed the sacrifice of a devout will, such as is immolated by religious profession.

[135] by a prodigious event To whom Jacobinus: 'Since the Apostle forbids Christians to contend with words; if you please, let us settle the strife by deeds, and by them peacefully and sedately investigate the truth. Let your paternity bid your disciple exhibit some specimen of your obedience: and I likewise will bid mine, to exhibit some of ours; and to him who shall conquer by obeying, let the palm be given.' 'It quite pleases me,' the churchman replies; 'but it befits you, the inventor of the amicable method, to go before with the experiment, and to command some one of your subjects what shall please you.' 'Not unwillingly,' says Jacobinus, 'do I comply,' and, turning to a fellow: 'Brother Mark, come here, and forthwith from the kitchen bring me in the hollows of your hands as many coals as you can hold: for I am exceedingly cold, and desire to be warmed.'

[136] he defends, He, hesitating not at all, made by the ardor of obeying stronger than fear, flies to the hearth, presents to his master the fiery coals placed in his palms, and, as if he were handling soft roses, perseveres in holding them harmlessly, until he had sated the eyes of the bystanders with the sight of the prodigy, to which they could not deny credence: and, being bidden to carry the victory back to the kitchen, the obedient man spoke without a fight: for indeed the Augustinian's companion, dismayed at the miracle and anxious with fear, lest he should be bidden to attempt something similar, anticipating the command with a specious excuse, said: 'Far be it, reverend father, that we should tempt God with attempts of this kind. If you command fire to be brought, I will carry it in a little brazier; cease to bid me grasp it with my hands.' The anxious forestalling could have raised a laugh, if the minds fixed in deep admiration could have laughed. By which success the learned preacher understood that hither too falls the sacred eulogy: 'Better is obedience than victims'; if namely simplicity, promptitude, cheerfulness accompany it, and not the solemnity of the vow alone clothe it with comeliness."

[137] by which, however, the envy of some did not cease. Here too pertains the horrid example of obedience which below in the Acts, num. 265, will be related; namely when a certain disciple, at the command of blessed John Columbinus, harmlessly put his head to fiery coals. Yet with all these things the pertinacious envy of certain men did not acquiesce, who did not cease to contradict the Order of the Jesuati. This I gather from the Treatise on thirty questions in praise of the religion of the Jesuati, whose writer died in the year 1503, and of whom Rossi, among the authors prefixed to his Triumph, page 3, thus makes mention: "Antony Corsetti, a Sicilian, doctor of both laws, and in the academy of Padua primary professor of Pontifical law, who wrote an apology against the assailants of the Order of the Jesuati, and in it inserted various questions pertaining to their foundation and their state. This was printed at Venice in the year of the Lord 1495, on the 22nd of September, and is kept in the same monastery of Saints John and Paul at Rome among the Jesuati."

[138] Amid these storms the Order of the Jesuati stood unshaken up to the year of Christ 1668, Pope Clement IX in the year 1668 in which Pope Clement IX extinguished it by his thirtieth constitution, which in volume VI of the Roman Bullarium, pages 299 and 300, thus runs: "Pope Clement IX, to the perpetual memory of the matter. The Roman Pontiff, ever watching, in the manner of a sedulous father of a family, over the care of the Lord's field, for uprooting thence the plants of religious Orders and congregations, which, the primitive vigor and spirit of religiousness failing, render no or very little utility in the Church of God, is sometimes led, as he judges in the Lord conducive to the public good of the same Church.

[139] Led by this consideration and by other most grave and reasonable causes known to us, suppressed the Order of the Jesuati with other congregations, by our own motion and out of certain knowledge and mature deliberation, and out of the plenitude of Apostolic power, the congregations of the canons of St. George in Alga of Venice, and of the brothers Jesuati of St. Jerome, and of the brothers of the same St. Jerome of Fiesole under the rule of St. Augustine, together with all their respective dignities, offices, and ministries, and every conventuality, collegiality, title, essence, and denomination, by the tenor of the present, we perpetually extinguish, suppress, and abolish: and all the respective goods of the same congregations thus suppressed, movable and immovable, both sacred and profane, convents, colleges, monasteries, houses, vineyards, estates, canons, responsions, fruits, revenues, and rights whatsoever, wherever they exist, to the disposition of us and of the Apostolic See we reserve, to be converted to pious uses and works by those to whom this shall be committed by us and the aforesaid See.

[140] Moreover to the canons and brothers of the said suppressed congregations, and a maintenance assigned to the survivors, who now live, and in the same congregations respectively emitted their profession, the faculty of passing to any other religion approved by the same See, in which they shall find willing receivers, or of remaining in the world in the habit of a secular cleric under the jurisdiction and obedience of the Ordinaries of the places where they shall happen to dwell, with a provision for each of them for their sustenance: to the clerics indeed in the sum of forty scudi of Roman money; but to the laymen or lay-brothers in the sum of twenty scudi each per year, as long as they shall live, or until sufficient provision be otherwise made for them, upon certain goods or revenues of the suppressed congregations of this kind respectively, to be assigned by the same Ordinaries, we grant and impart.

[141] Lastly, lest the churches of the same suppressed congregations be destitute of due service, but be kept in repair, to the aforesaid Ordinaries of the places in which those churches are situated, by the present we commit and command, he granted their houses and churches to others, that they depute chaplains with a competent stipend, also to be assigned upon a certain thing of the aforesaid goods, by whom the Masses and other burdens may be satisfied, and to those churches due worship and veneration be preserved: and that the aforesaid Ordinaries accurately make and provide an inventory both of the sacred and profane furniture pertaining to the suppressed congregations of this kind respectively, lest it by anyone be concealed, occupied, or thence removed in any way, unless and until by us or the aforesaid See it be otherwise provided." Then follow the confirmative formulas, and other clauses wont to be employed in similar constitutions of the Roman Pontiffs.

[142] they being meanwhile bidden to live privately, Thus was extinguished the Order of the Jesuati, and their faculties were expended on the Cretan war, which the Venetians at that time waged against the Turks; but their temples and convents were granted to secular priests and to religious of other Orders; but the Jesuati themselves at their own arbitration dwelt privately, of whom two at Ferrara survived up to the year 1726, as the Reverend Lord Joseph Antenor Scalabrini, rector of the basilica of St. Mary of Bocca at Ferrara, on the occasion of the Acts of blessed John of Tossignano signified to us in these words: "In the year 1726 there entered the way of all flesh the Reverend Lords George Posati and Innocent Casa-nova, doctors of both laws, Ferrarese, longevous in age, once professed in the Order of the Jesuati, no other survivors of the abolished religion being left in this city."

[143] concerning whose state a certain heretic Rodolph Hospinian, a heterodox, in his work On Monks, book 6, chapter 40, betrays gross ignorance: for when there he had related the origin, dress, and certain customs of the Jesuati from other authors, at the end of the chapter he thus ignorantly writes: "Concerning this Order (as far as I know) in our age nothing is established; whether it gradually failed, is in doubt. Yet some affirm that the Jesuits, who emerged under Pope Paul III, borrowed their name from these, or rather restored the old collapsed Order of the Jesuati."

[144] betrays his gross ignorance. But that I may liberally pardon this stupid calumniator of Catholics, and especially of monks, his other errors, could he not know that the Order of the Jesuati survived up to his own age? Or did he at least not know that the Jesuati are distinguished from the Jesuits or the Society of Jesus, and that both Orders, with diverse houses, constitutions, and privileges, flourished at the same time in the Roman Church? For thus indeed the heretics grow blind, while they rashly wish to meddle in our sacred things. But that wretched work, which Hospinian viciously and malignantly scraped together against the Catholics from various writers, deserves commiseration rather than refutation. § X. The institute of the Jesuatess nuns still persevering, the origin of the Order, its laws, and the chief deeds of the first assistant.

[145] Bonanni of the Jesuatess nuns, who persevere up to now, By the constitution of Clement IX above-mentioned the Jesuatess nuns were not comprehended, who up to now in certain cities of Italy laudably persevere, and concerning whose origin and institute our Bonanni in the Catalogue of the religious Orders, part 2, chapter 67, summarily hands down the following: "The Order of the Jesuatess nuns St. John Columbinus instituted. He, when he desired under the standard of poverty to gather also feminine cohorts, strove to persuade Catharine his cousin to follow poverty: and when he went on to urge with examples and arguments, the splendor of God penetrating into her heart, overcome by an unexpected prodigy, she most readily gave herself to the will of her exhorter, and confirmed her purpose of virginity and Evangelical poverty." These same things in our Acts will afterward be narrated more clearly and fully.

[146] Bonanni in the same place thus continues: "That a beginning might be given to the fair work, he hands down briefly the origin she exchanged her whole secular habit for a vile and dark tunic, covered her head with a linen veil, left her feet uncovered, distributed her means to the poor; her food she begged from door to door, and the time which remained from prolix prayer she expended on the works of Martha. By her example other honorable women, with Catharine, coalesced into a new company, which afterward through Italy was propagated. Before the rest went Joan Marescotti, afterward called Petra by father Peter of Peter, Frances, sister of John de Ambrosio, and Andrea, who founded the monastery at Florence."

[147] All these Catharine had gathered in her house, where, as in a palaestra, they were exercised in various virtues. and the rules, Thence rare was their going out, except when the occasion of going out, or the necessity of asking alms, compelled them to go out; rare their speech, their fasting nearly perpetual. Twice on each night they beat their limbs with scourges; the use of haircloth was familiar, they placed the delights of their bed in mattresses of straw. At last, a convent being built, in the year 1367 they chose in it a strict enclosure. They are called the poor Jesuatesses of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin: they live under the rule of St. Augustine, and have the name of Jesus for their family badge. The garment which blessed John prescribed for them is a white tunic and a scapular of dark color, upon which in the sacred actions a cape of the same color is placed."

[148] But it will be of use to know these things more fully and distinctly from our Rossi, and Rossi fully narrates how Catharine Columbina who, besides those things which below in the Acts, from num. 257, will be said concerning the prodigious conversion of Catharine Columbina, adorns the first example of that same leader and the remaining course of the religious life, part 2, chapter 14, §1 and 2, with this eulogy: "But Catharine, at Columbinus's persuasion, confirmed and adorned her purpose of virginity, with the society besides of Evangelical poverty: that from her a beginning might be given to the fair work, without hesitation her whole secular habit is exchanged for a vile and dark tunic; her head is veiled with a linen veil; her feet are left uncovered; her means are distributed to the poor, her food is begged from door to door; the time which remains from prolix prayer is expended on the works of Martha.

[149] And behold, the Order of the Jesuatess nuns formed in the first rose: by her example, to an austere manner of living for, drawn by its odor, other honorable women, to run after the Spouse with manly fortitude, by no means hesitating with Catharine, coalesced into a new company of virgins devoted to God, which afterward through Italy was propagated. It fell to Joan Marescotti to have gone before those to follow, who, the lily of virginity blooming amid the rose-beds of youth and nobility, preferred to dedicate it to Christ, than to yield it to the power or delights of the marriage-bed: and, lest chastity should walk unaccompanied, poverty was called in, which should temper food and dress to the form prescribed by John for Catharine.

[150] To the noble and splendid pair of handmaids of Christ there flew with incredible zeal of imitation Petra, called by father Peter of Peter, Frances, sister of John de Ambrosio, Andrea, roused other women, to whom let it be for a surname, that, sent to Florence for the foundation of a monastery, with the highest reputation of sanctity and prudence she administered it. The number Simona Gallerana augmented, daughter of Ristori, a woman of illustrious charity and humility, on whom God conferred so great a grace in conversation, gave so great an efficacy in words, that she drew very many to the same institute of life, and was held worthy to be set, after Catharine's departure, over the newly-begun society of sisters. And since this is certain, it is to be asserted as probable either that from Florence, where they write she was admitted, she migrated to Siena, or that she always lived at Siena, and died there, which by others has been unambiguously handed down in writing.

[151] and gathered them in her house, All these Catharine had gathered in her house, where, as in a spiritual palaestra, they were exercised in various virtues. Thence rare was their going out, except where necessity either of collecting alms or of some good to be done compelled them to go out, and that with such caution, that to the younger were given the elder as companions, and they always went two by two, their faces for the most part veiled: and their composure and gait was so grave, that it seemed a teaching of morals, a specimen of piety, a form of virtue. Those going out modesty and prayer accompanied; those returning the same received; and that house was made a house of prayer, of fasting, and of mortification.

[152] Rare was their speech, which necessity demanded, not the desire of speaking induced, where they gave themselves to pious and arduous exercises, except where by some pious reading amid the work of their hands they were lifted to heavenly thoughts; for by these they divided their times of praying, knowing it written by the Apostle: "He who does not labor, let him not eat." They were fed by an almost perpetual fasting, and at certain times of the year they stretched the sails of their vessel. Twice on each night they had learned from their Master to beat their limbs with scourges, they had made the use of haircloth familiar, the delights of their bed they had placed in small mattresses of straw. Peace among them, as of one heart and one soul, save in so far as each one, striving to choose the worse things among the offices of life and domestic labors, contended with her sisters in humility, patience, charity.

[153] Further, Catharine's example, as more illustrious than that of the rest, in the performing of which she herself went before. so also more powerful for fostering and augmenting fervor, especially with the addition of exhortation, by which both the light of knowledge might grow and the peril of weariness in so great exertion might be met. Further, she was of so great and so subject a humility, which Jerome proclaims in Læta, that, being the head of the monasteries and mother of virgins, she was thought the handmaid of all, and, forgetful of her own things, served the conveniences of others. Uncultivated dress, vile food, a neglected head, were the tokens of a condemned world: prolixity of prayer, sleepless nights, the sack wearing away her little body sent before the fruit of the beloved heaven, and the price for eternal felicity.

[154] Her ecstasies, And that the foundations of the new edifice might be laid more firmly, and consolation prepared for the posterity that would inhabit, it pleased the God of all consolation to give signs from heaven above, by which the sanctity of his handmaid might become known below, and the greatest possible authority be conciliated to her words and deeds. On the most solemn night therefore, instituted for recollecting the nativity of Christ, while she was insisting on prayer with the other sisters, caught out of herself she began to be lifted on high, and about two ells from the pavement for two hours she hung immovable, walled about on every side with a wondrous light, until, returning to herself and to her place, she carried around her heart, suffused with unwonted joy, her countenance with a seraphic ruddiness, the whole following day: and she was heard by her fellows to speak so profoundly and so lucidly of the mystery of the Incarnation and of the Lord's Nativity, that it was quite clear from what fountain she had drunk and whence these streams flowed.

[155] Toward the divine Catharine, virgin and martyr, devotion toward St. Catharine the martyr inasmuch as she was of the same name as herself, she was borne with singular affection and piety, which through all the days of the year indeed she was wont to show by some cult and veneration and to testify as by a tribute; but especially on the recurring of her anniversary feast, more ardently she renewed her pious zeal: on the vigil, besides an exiguous ration of bread and water, to taste no other food; to draw out most of the night in contemplation, on the morrow in the morning to approach the sacred communion, the whole day to abstain from all food and drink whatsoever; although this was already familiar to her, that whenever she was refreshed by the Angelic bread, she took not even a crumb of common food or any other kind of eatable.

[156] Therefore on one such day, from the Eucharist received, absorbed in the sea of divinity, she stood immovable in the manner of a statue: and other divine favors, then little by little, by the hidden force of the Godhead, she is raised upward, and from the third hour of the day to Vespers she is held in the air in blessed suspension, and, a ray gliding down from above, through all that space, she is wondrously illumined. Nor was it lawful for her, suffering these divine things, either to withdraw herself from the sight of the others, or to conceal what the Spirit, breathing when and where it wills, willed to be of public light, which humility, covered with darkness, would greatly have wished; and therefore, when frequently, the household beholding and being amazed, they happened, she, ashamed, could neither speak nor bear to hear those speaking of them.

[157] What should the parent of pride do here, when he saw himself conquered by a woman, who by certain temptations of the demons he who through a woman had ruined the human race? The dark one assails her, attentive to her nocturnal prayers, and, titillating her senses, tries to kindle them with unwonted goads of pleasure. The handmaid of Christ was compelled to think what she knew not, and to admit phantasms of pleasure, whose experiments she had not known. Angered, therefore, she seizes a scourge woven of little iron chains, insists on reciting the seven penitential Psalms, and did not cease to beat her innocent members with a savage flogging, until she had run through all those, and had quenched the ardor with a copious effusion of blood. Then the nocturnal plunderer betrayed himself and cried out: "You have conquered me, Catharine, you have conquered." To whom she: "Not I, but my Lord Jesus Christ has conquered you." And she spent the whole night praying.

[158] At another time, as she was recollecting most piously and devoutly in her mind the mysteries of the Lord's passion, the envious enemy, trying to disturb her, and are tempered by vexations. made huge noises, cried out horribly, nay, even extinguished the lamp of the one praying. She recognizes these to be the mockeries of Satan, and, undaunted, her trust cast upon God, traces the sign of the holy cross, and says: "O spirits of Tartarus, in the name of the Lord depart, depart hence; the Lord is my salvation and my helper. Which of you shall I fear?" The gnashings ceased, the tumults subsided, the importunate disturbers departed: for she indeed persevered in praying, until the day should dawn. Nor did she dissemble to open to the sisters what had been done, when, concerning the noise of the past night, heard by them, speech had fallen.

[159] This course and rigor of life held for two and twenty years, Finally she died piously, after which the desire of her heart, namely of seeing her cousin reigning with Christ, the Lord granted her, and by his nod, by the divine Catharine her tutelary, forewarned in sickness of the impending hour of her death, that, if the voice were made, "Behold the Bridegroom comes," she had adorned and lit lamps full of oil, about to go forth to meet him as he came. With the holy viaticum and the reception of the last mysteries she fortified her soul about to migrate, and when the crown of her companions surrounded the little bed of the one hastening, having exhorted them for a while to perseverance in the institute of a more severe life, to charity, and to love and hope, she rested. Soon she began to murmur prayers, whose sound, dying in the straits of her mouth, did not reach the ears of the bystanders; to sigh, to pant toward heaven; after these, with open eyes and cheered countenance, to pronounce clearly: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house," and: "O blessed Catharine and father John, my protectors, behold, to you I come." And amid holy desires and pious invocations she departed, and her soul flew back to its Author, on the 20th day of October in the year 1387.

[160] (whether she enjoys the title or cult of blessed, we doubt) The Sienese calendars address her with the title of blessed; but Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and other Martyrologists, made no mention of her. Whence I suspect that public veneration is not shown to this Catharine, and that she is to be placed on the 20th of October among the Passed-Over, after our manner. Therefore on this occasion I wished here to transcribe her chief deeds, since perhaps never elsewhere in our work concerning them is mention to be made. If, however, the Sienese find some indications of ancient cult, let them deign to warn us in good time, that her Acts on the 20th of October may be more copiously illustrated.

[161] [and girded with an iron chain and haircloth that first leader of the Jesuatesses is found,] Finally Rossi in the same place thus concludes his narration:

"Afterward, when the sisters compose that virginal body, adorn it with tears, and prepare it for burial, lo, the breast wrapped in rough haircloth, and, clinging to her juiceless sides, an iron chain so tenaciously adhering, that it could scarcely be torn away. Amid these thorns bloomed the lily, and the first plant of the Jesuatesses, from which shoots were plucked to be sown to rose-beds through the gardens of Italy, and the flowers of honor and honesty to be gathered: for that house, by Catharine reduced into the form of a monastery, was the first of the Jesuatess nuns, which afterward, established by the laws of religious discipline, furnished colonies to other cities of Italy, in which even today flourishes the most holy Order of virgins dedicated to God serving under the standard of blessed Columbinus."

[162] by whose example in the city of Lucca For us it will here be enough to have assigned a single shoot of that first plant from the same Rossi, who, part 2 of the Triumph, chapter 9, §5, of the Lucca convent of the Jesuatic Order thus makes mention: "When Bartholomew Piccolomini, whom we said in his place was gained for Christ by Columbinus (his conversion below in the Acts is related in detail), governed the house recently erected for the Jesuati, and greatly helped outsiders by the example and discourse of his most holy life, when occasion offered itself, was wont, with men, about the virtue and sanctity of his Master, with women, about blessed Catharine his cousin, and about the company of virgins gathered by her at Siena, to make mention and to commend them, he was willingly and thirstily heard.

The words of God's servant were like flowers, by whose odor, being allured, they were first gently struck to imitation; at other times like arrows, which, piercing the hearts, goaded them to a generous resolve.

[163] some women coalesced into a new company of the same institute, At last, when they had conferred among themselves some thoughts hovering in their minds, it was resolved to embrace a more severe discipline after the manner of the Sienese, and, counsel being taken about the manner of overcoming the difficulties, magnanimity overcoming their sex, having undertaken the work, they happily advanced and coalesced into a college not far from the temple of holy Regulus, which had a little before been given to the Jesuati. There a beginning for the course of Evangelical perfection with great ardor was given by a few, which afterward the calamities of the times, compelling them several times to change their dwellings, could indeed retard, but by no means break off, until, after various migrations here and there, established by the help and largess of the pious, their seat is at St. Joseph's, at which the primitive tenor of discipline, recalled by postliminy by the nun-inhabitants, perseveres even today to guard its glory, so that that house can be called an enclosed garden, in which the lilies of chastity gleam white, the roses of divine love grow purple, the violets of humility grow pale, and the flowers of all virtues bloom.

[164] In it Magdalene assigns her parts to prayer, contemplation, psalmody, which their successors up to now laudably observe. reading; her own also to action and the labor of the hands Martha defines; and each works for Jesus the Savior, whether she sit at his feet, hearing his words; or be solicitous about frequent ministry without disturbance. Jesus in their heart, as the angels know; Jesus in their mouth, as is manifest to men, whom they are wont to impart with the salutation, transmitted by inheritance from blessed Columbinus, 'Let Jesus Christ be praised,' with which they both receive those coming to them, and dismiss those departing from them. Now it only remains that we submit to the press the very Life of blessed John Columbinus, which our Rossi laboriously collected from various monuments of the Jesuati, as above, §2, we noted. To this we shall append some miracles wrought after the death of the same Blessed one, and rendered by us from the Italian idiom into Latin, which to his posthumous glory pertain. Finally in an appendix we shall exhibit some fragments of his epistles or pious exhortations, in which the divine light of infused doctrine and the vehement ardor of perfect sanctity sparkle.

THE LIFE

By the author John Baptist Rossi of the Society of Jesus. We excerpted it from the Roman edition of the year 1648, and reduced it to the historical order, the longer digressions being cut away. John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.) BY THE AUTHOR John Baptist Rossi.

CHAPTER I.

The country, stock, surname, parents, first studies, marriage, offspring, business, and offices of blessed John administered before his conversion.

The sanctity of citizens is the glory of cities, and the magnificence of peoples, and by it those other goods placed outside the soul are either illustrated or absorbed. Our Blessed one, of noble stock at Siena, Let this be granted to the Columbinus family, that it is the illustrious germ of a most noble city, that it shines with the continued propagation and renown of ancestors and descendants ^a; yet it is of greater felicity to have intensified the splendor received from one's country by the accession of so great a light, as by the rays of eminent sanctity and by the celebrity of his own name blessed John Columbinus diffused through the world, and illustrated the honors of his country and birth: for although the city of Siena, that illustrious gem of Etruria, and flower of Italy, had already grown famous to the lands by a manifold offspring of holy men, yet by the rising of the new star Columbinus it deserved to add this above its former ornaments, that it should be called the fruitful parent of founders of religious Orders, and by the colonies of its citizens should amplify and adorn the most blessed abundance of the heavenly city.

[2] which had changed the ancestral surname of Strozzavacca In this place is not to be passed over the deep counsel of divine providence, which shone in the imposition of Columbinus's surname, when this recent star shone forth for the ornament and support of the city. For, according to the custom and license of the ancients, the ancestors of that house more than once changed their arms and surnames, and at last, about a hundred years before John was born, James, commonly called Minus, was the first who set up the device conflated of four doves and a golden cross gleaming in an azure field, and changed the ancestral surname of Strozza-vacca into the more brilliant Columbinus.

[3] into the more brilliant Columbinus, This it pleased his descendants to retain, and to render glorious at home and abroad by the excellence of eminent deeds, until to it, from the new offspring, a cult and honor superior to human came, and to posterity it came more venerably: for what once, amid the quiet helms of the commonwealth, resounded illustrious with the praise of prudence and wisdom, and, amid the turbid motions of arms and the din of war, displayed the titles of fortitude inscribed on the standards, as it obtained its glory from John's holiness, began to resound among the altars and solemn rites of the sacred things, and passed from an earthly into a heavenly dignity…

[4] he is born in an uncertain year, month, and day And indeed the things said thus far concerning his country, family, and surname are not ambiguous; but confirmed by the weighty testimony of writers. But his birthday and month, nay even the year itself, is uncertain and obscure: nor did any light shine from the monuments of the Columbinus family or of the religion of the Jesuati upon those studiously searching, that a way might be opened for finding them, which by the laws of history it were not permitted to pass over in silence. Yet, the years of the conversion to God and of the death being compared with each other, to be mentioned below, it is an easy conjecture, that about the three hundredth and some years above the thousandth of repaired salvation, the most fortunate birth of John happened…

[5] his father being Peter Columbinus, and his mother Angela, Of the boyhood and youth of the Blessed one we have received nothing from antiquity which, inserted here, might be handed to the reader. Only his parents are indicated, of whom the one was called Peter Columbini; the other Angela, or, as the common people called her, Angelina, and she was called without an expressed surname or family. It is probable that he spent his tender years in the schools of letters, until, imbued with the rudiments of grammar, he had drunk in as much of literature as the custom of his country and the condition of the age demanded for administering the private business of his family and the public business of the commonwealth.

[6] by whom he is assigned to trade, For at that time the city of Siena obeyed the command of no prince or dynast; but, the peoples being subjected to itself, it gave laws, and preserved the form of aristocracy, disdaining monarchy. To train its youth gradually to receive its ordinances and laws, and to move them suitably to the magistracies when fit, it deemed it of common good and dignity to assign them to the exercise of trade, both because that was a way most convenient for declining leisure, the fountain of all vices; and because from it arose the greatest opportunity of sharpening the wits and industry in acting, this was the whetstone of dexterity and prudence, to be brought to the senate in a more advanced age.

[7] And moreover that occupation, common to the whole nobility, was far from sordidness and illiberal gain, which there at that time did not conflict with nobility. and was more honorable than that it should hinder the splendor of birth, or obscure it, even in the opinion of foreign ^b wise men, whom to relate here is superfluous. This palaestra therefore, trodden by his coevals, John enters; and while he sedulously exercises himself in it, he so applies himself to learning the accounts of wares, that he gives a specimen of an ingenuous disposition, and by his own candor and sincerity himself begets honor for the business.

[8] Meanwhile (in what year of his age is narrated by no one) his parents, in desire of grandchildren, their son not yet fully grown, Then he married a noble wife, inasmuch as he was an only child, urged to seek a spouse, and, easily found in the illustrious house of the Cerretani, joined him in matrimony. She was Blasia by name, daughter of John, in appearance beautiful and in virtue comely, to which, when an opulent dowry was added, there was no difficulty in the contracting, no delay in celebrating the nuptials. All things proceeded favorably and prosperously, inasmuch as between the spouses, by lineage, riches, age, disposition, by no means unequal, and obsequious to the pleasure of the parents transacting on either side.

[9] Fruitfulness augmented their joys: for the offspring received from the marriage is twin; from which he received two offspring, who died in boyhood, namely a male, to whom the name of Peter ^c, and a female, to whom that of Angela at the lustral waters, on account of the memory and respect of the ancestors so named, was imposed. Both the mother's womb seemed to bring forth for heaven, for the little soul of the male, scarcely twelve years old, swiftly snatched to better things, lest it should some day be changed by malice, and the little sister, dedicated in St. Abundius's convent to the heavenly Spouse, from the very novitiate was called to the eternal nuptials of the heavenly Lamb: which untimely death of the children, as it could not but be bitter to the parents, so to John himself, by the order of the divine disposition directing all things to its ends, happened salutary. For, about to be the father of a numerous offspring soon to be begotten through the Gospel, he had to be freed from the bonds of flesh and blood, and to be taken out from the cares of earthly things which the love and education of children draw with them, he who soon was about to invite mortals to penance and the contempt of the world by preaching and example.

[10] John's youth was held by the straits of private occupations, while his riper age was moved to public ones. and he is promoted to bearing a magistracy; This drawing near, by the common suffrages of the fathers he was chosen into the senate, where, persevering to give an eminent exemplar of the best senator, he so proved his prudence and vigilance to his colleagues, that first they by no means hesitated to entrust to him all the greater business, then more than once to create him leader of the commonwealth (they commonly called it "confaloniere" ^d). For the first administration happily discharged was an invitation to the second, and this prepared the way to the third: for there concurred to these both the ready pleasure of the nobility and the prone approbation of the people, admitting with most willing minds his command and rule, whose providence it had often at other times experienced, and his singular charity toward the citizens.

[11] But, which is the unhappiness of our humanity, to this star too its own spots adhered; those especially but while at the same time he practiced trade, by which are defiled those who wish to become rich, and therefore fall into the temptations and snares of the devil, as the Apostle complained. John from youth, given to making gain from merchandise, while he gaped too greedily, avarice gradually creeping in and besieging his heart, on this side relaxes his hands to seize what is another's; on that tightens them to retain what should have been given out of justice or equity: and although from open violence and injury a certain ingenuity implanted in his mind deterred him, and he cautiously guarded lest he incur the mark of rapine and usury, or beget suspicion; yet the investigation of hidden gains could not lie hidden from the household, and from outsiders a little more curious, or even then especially, when therefore the desire of having impelled him even to the capture of sordid things.

[12] he gapes too greedily after gain. For to keep the old grain carefully shut in the barns, until, the year declining, the price of the failing provision should increase, and then to sell off the wares when greater gain from scarcity should accrue. But if meanwhile it happened that the grain was corrupted and the barley rotted, to distribute the moldy stuff to the peasants and other needy on this condition, that at the collection of the new fruits whole and sound stuff should be returned by the same measure. To sell his own wares dearer, to buy others' cheaper (which common desire of mortals, or vice of nature, even the witty mimic in St. Augustine [e] acknowledged), he deemed a matter of economic prudence, and, what was more iniquitous, either reputed it lawful to withhold something from the sum owed to creditors, or, if unlawful, by no means shrank from it; and to dare other things of that kind, which neither money-changers nor common bankers think lawful for themselves or for an ingenuous citizen ^f…

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

His wonderful and sudden conversion to good fruit from the reading of the Acts of St. Mary of Egypt. The fifty-fifth year above the thousand three hundredth from Christ's birth was flowing ^a, when on a certain day (what day of the month they did not express, Ill bearing the delay of dinner, because not even the month did the ancient writers care to record) returning early from the banking-table John, exceedingly hungry, wished to feast, at once to recline, and to dine. But, the food not yet well cooked, because he had come before the accustomed hour, somewhat angry he orders it prepared as quickly as possible, and urges the maidservant and his wife, and admonishes them of speed more imperiously than he was wont before: who, although they executed his commands diligently, yet it was not permitted to those hastening to finish all in a moment, its own time being to be given to the cooking, its own also to the seasoning, unless he wished half-raw or unseasoned viands to be served. He, whether by his barking stomach, and the bile gnawing his inward parts, or by the solicitude of business recalling him to the interrupted reckonings, impatient of the little delay, grows hot with anger and fills the hall with complaints and curses.

[14] Then his wife, upright and prudent, opposing gentleness to her husband's madness, beseeches him to bear it a little while, and, adding a few words she casts down the spiritual book offered to her; to still that intemperance, sets before him a codex containing the Lives of the Saints, and gently asks that he not be reluctant to read a little while; that thus a small time might be pleasantly beguiled and the weariness relieved. But his palate being irritated, these things by no means pleased, and therefore, abusing the office of the wise woman, he seizes the book, casts it down, and dashes it to the pavement; then, akin to one raving, he begins to vociferate and to blurt out things unworthy of a well-mannered and grave man. At which Blasia, lest by the sprinkling of cold water the flame should grow, withdraws sad in silence, and, anxious, hastens to prepare the meal quickly.

[15] Meanwhile John, his anger subsiding, begins to return to himself, [but repenting of the deed, and taking it up again, he falls upon the Life of St. Mary of Egypt,] to recognize his error, to be ashamed, to lift the thrown-down book into his hands, to open it, to read whatever subject chance first offered: this was the wondrous conversion of St. Mary of Egypt ^b, her penance, sanctity, which were fully narrated in those pages, and flowed savorily into his mind now milder. She had once lived so freely and so licentiously, that from the greatness of her crimes she was by antonomasia called the sinner, that is, the disgrace of the flesh, the scandal of the world, the fodder of Erebus.

[16] But, by the help of the Virgin Mother of God, having obtained mercy from the Lord, from a most filthy cauldron she was turned into a crystalline and purer phial than that: which he read with so great a relish, for when she knew how sordid and how deformed she was, about to expiate the filth of a life basely spent, she withdrew into the wilderness, and there for the space of forty-five years, unseen by all mortals, she lay hidden, by fasting, prayer, affliction, tears she wiped away her old stains; and so far did she render herself amiable to the angels and to the King of the angels, that she was admitted to their familiarity and converse, and frequently caught up to hear the heavenly melodies.

[17] While John runs over with his eyes these and such wonders, so that he unrolled it all, his heart is affected with delight, he lays aside all anger, turns the tumult of indignation into pious thoughts. Here to stop a while and to wonder, then to give his eyes back to the page, as to a table, another hunger goading, insisting on a more salutary meal, he refreshes his mind, and is kindled with the desire of imitation, at last enters upon a resolve of changing his life. Meanwhile his sedulous wife prepares, and announces that the food is prepared and the table set, and invites to eat. To whom John: "You too bear it a little, and repay the turn of the delay, while I shall have finished the history which I have begun to read."

[18] his wife meanwhile rejoicing and praying, "And gladly," she says, "we shall wait; let my lord go on further at his pleasure, while we meanwhile provide the food, lest any loss come from the delay." Further the pious woman rejoiced, like those who rejoice in the harvest, and said silently to herself: "Whence to him so sudden a change?" And thence, withdrawing to a nearby room, she falls upon her knees, and, thanks being rendered to God the creator, suppliantly prays, that the good work which he has begun he himself may perfect, may open the eyes of the blind man, may tear his mind from the desire of riches, may deign to create a heart docile and ready for divine services.

[19] and, during his reading, resolved to amend his manners, Nor were the prayers in vain; John was changed into another man: for straightway a spark gliding down from above into his cold breast began indeed at first to creep with a slow heat, but nevertheless, lively and life-giving, to rouse a vow of a better life and gradually thereafter to migrate into a flame, which consumed all the dross of the old man… And as those who have lain afflicted with a grievous and long disease, not at once, when they have emerged, are able to run or to perform those things which sound and robust limbs demand; but gradually recover, and by the experiments of their strength learn what their wearied members refuse to sustain, what to bear; so John by no means at once attempted the extreme things, to which he afterward opportunely came; but gently and by degrees he began to decline from evil, to put reins on avarice, and to rest from the anxious solicitude of acquiring; then to do good, and to seek and pursue peace, according to the admonition of the most holy Psalmist: to grant a part of the time, withdrawn from business, to prayers, to have mercy on the poor, to relieve the needy, and to help a little more largely with alms, to visit the temples, and to afford whatever other tokens of restored health of that kind ^c: which, that they might be more solidly confirmed, day and night Blasia asked from the Lord, and indeed also, occasion being given or sought, with pious addresses and every kind of service she strove to retain him in his purpose…

[20] which purpose But who would doubt that the beginning of the conversion d is to be drawn from penance, and indeed a confession being premised, even of the whole life, if he wishes seriously to weep for his past sins and to expiate them with tears and grief, who recognizes their foulness and harms. Nor do I think it to be doubted, that toward this plank John, emerging from the midst of the waves of the world, stretched out his hand, when, carried into the port of a holier life, he strove to repair by this amulet of salvation the losses of his former tossing and frequent running upon the shoals. But the writers were silent, perhaps because they esteemed it superfluous to record a matter known, and which no one would not know. For the rest, what is customary to those who draw back their foot from the way of perdition and return to the Lord, and desire to adhere to him with the whole affection of the heart, that they wipe away the filth of the soul by salutary confession, and by its frequent use guard the brightness of purity attained; who would say that it was omitted by him whom divine decrees had made great among the Saints and founders of religions, and had reckoned among the eminent penitents?…

[21] Let the same judgment be concerning the frequency, cult, and veneration of the sacred Communion: by the frequent use of the Sacraments for although here too antiquity was silent, and suffered the pen to dry up, where it was to be filled with golden liquor; yet to anyone it is easy to believe, that he who was about to renew the custom first introduced in the Church and then obsolete of the frequent communion of the faithful, went before by his own example, and performed the mysteries of the Eucharist more frequently than men of that age commonly did; that by the reception of the life-giving bread he might augment the strength of his soul and cherish the first-fruits of his spirit with heavenly food. Fortified with this protection, diligently and bravely he persevered to climb to the mountain of God Horeb, that is, to the summit of perfection, and, lest he look back or turn back, provided with all vigilance.

[22] But because the greatest part of the harms had once flowed from avarice, and by the extirpation of his avarice he leaned especially to this, that all the fibers of preposterous desire might be torn out, and the seeds of Christian liberality cast in might be fostered by the warmth of charity, that, watered by the wave of liberal distribution, they might bear the fruitfulness of merits. Therefore he diligently discussed with himself whether he had harmed anyone by giving less or by receiving more than was due, resolved without hesitation to pour back whatever had once been heaped into his coffers beyond right; nay even to render fourfold, if it should be needful. To one wishing to sell, to withhold nothing of the price asked, sometimes even to add a little more, that he might buy dearer; conversely, to one asking to buy from him, to remit something of the legitimate price and to sell for less than the wares were valued by common estimation.

[23] By which facility, published through the mouths of the citizens, so great a concourse to him was made, he carried out, his fellow-citizens wondering, that you would not know whether more sellers or buyers hastened to contract with John. This was found, that the good-will of both was bought; the admiration of the rest was excited, some saying: "Is not this the man who yesterday and the day before wrangled over a farthing; who bestowed nothing, even when asked, nor kept his hands altogether from others' goods? How have the chains fallen from his hands, and been loosed to bestow even on those not asking, which a little before were inexorably bound against the very needy and those asking alms?"

[24] And various were the judgments about this profusion: some conjectured he was brought back to better fruit by the counsel of some friend, and judging diversely of that change of manners, who, setting before him on this side the disgrace of avarice, on that the beauty of liberality, and the splendor conciliating honor to the family, had engendered hatred of the one and love of the other… Others, comparing his present effusion with his former greediness, thought it an untimely prodigality, the raving of a diminished brain… There had settled in the minds of the wiser (who are very rare) a certain divination about John, that he would one day be reckoned in the catalogue of those whose deeds he would follow with a close footstep, that he might lay the deepest foundations of a spiritual edifice, which were to rise to the lofty summit of dignity and glory. For the rest, he himself, joined with his whole soul to the Savior, as he passed by the accusations of those objurgating him with a deaf ear, so the presentiments of those praising him, being now an eminent despiser of himself, placed among trifles.

[25] Meanwhile, initiated into the sacred soldiery, promoting daily the beginnings of a holier discipline which he had taken up, while he himself meanwhile aspired to greater perfection. not content with mediocre things, he strove for the highest; nor did he now repute it something great in himself to abstain from things unlawful, unless by continual self-denial and the mastery of his appetites he also tempered himself from things lawful. You would have said he flew, not ran, because, solicitous to add to the wing of mortification the other of prayer, to expend more hours of day and night on the contemplation of divine things, frequently to be present at the sacred sermons, to read pious books, to visit the hospitals, to be at hand to the sick, he had made familiar to himself the exercises of his new life; and lest, in performing them, time should fail, to avoid the assemblies of nobles and the conversation of citizens, to decline the concourse of the people, and the mass of business partly to lessen, partly to divide; and by this industry he himself had time to spare, and, a lover of eternity, redeemed the time, for which grace was preparing its athlete now honorably triumphing over avarice, while it should also war down other savage enemies, the concupiscence of the flesh and the pride of life…

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

His wife consenting, the vow of chastity emitted by him, and other exercises of piety undertaken. The Blessed one, having tasted the sweetness of divine consolation, Columbinus had tasted from the marrow and experienced how sweet the Lord is, and, having drunk of this most limpid fountain, not only did he not desire that rib loving his body, but he was anguished in mind, on this side recollecting the muddy cisterns of the conjugal duty, then the sound of the Apostolic trumpet sounding against it: "Let the husband render the debt to the wife." What should he do amid straits more bitter than death, or what counsel should he take, when the counsels of the virginal Master set before and hold out lilies, and, short of the violation of a command, do not permit them to be freely grasped with the hand, except by another's consent?

[27] after various difficulties proposed to himself Should he seek the loosing of the bed? But Paul cries out: "You are bound to a wife, do not seek loosing"; nay, the Lord too by edict forbids: "What

God has joined, let not man separate." That marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled; that continence is of great virtue and a special gift, which, although it had befallen him from heaven to attain, what should be done with a wife not yet an old woman, nor to celibacy propense or called? That most of the kinship would be disturbed, and the whole city would thunder against the insolent attempt, and, as though about the violated right of nature, and about the breaking of marital faith, would earnestly complain.

[28] he resolves thereafter to keep chastity, In this surge of fluctuating thoughts, to the accustomed help of prayers hope and trust in God impel the ardent lover of chastity, whom, while he piously and solicitously consults, and insists on propitiating with prolix supplication, he feels himself animated and inwardly strengthened to attempt the arduous work, and to procure gently and amicably the consent to separation from his wife: for, this being obtained, he by no means doubted that the wedge was applied for loosing the knot, and that the other obstacles which he foresaw would emerge were to be overcome by the help of God disposing and by strong patience…

[29] And so at last he resolved with himself to cast a net, and to lead the dove into the toils of conjugal abstinence, and his wife and, a fitting hour being observed, which seemed more opportune for serious conversation, he addressed her thus, almost not unwillingly listening: "There is a secret of mine, Blasia, which by prudence it is permitted to reveal to you alone and to my father, the arbiter of my conscience. It is not hidden from you, from that time when the same house and the same bed joined us, how I have conducted myself before God and men; namely in much care of temporal things, and almost none of eternal.

[30] I was wandering through the tortuous ways of the perishing world, gaping after honors and riches, with various arguments which sink their lovers into the deep and ruin; and I had perished like a sheep straying from the fold and ill-guarded from the wolves, had not the merciful God, who had given you to me as a partner of the bed, given you as mistress and guide. Now, the same being propitious, it has been permitted me to come to my senses toward better fruit, and, stripped of the birdlime of desire, by which I clung tenaciously to the earth, I enter the way of salvation, that I may see if in any way I may lay hold and receive the prize promised to those running: but grievous fetters hitherto retard my course, to be loosed by no other hand than yours, which I do not despair to experience benign, and earnestly ask.

[31] The power of my body, which I willingly gave, I beseech you, most beloved wife, he exhorts to the same virtue, give back to me, and, conversely, that which you had transferred to me, receive not reluctantly from the one restoring it. From a wife you will become a sister, and I from a husband a brother, and we shall be two, no longer one in flesh, but one spirit in no flesh, unless perhaps in the side of the Savior. If for the future you assent to this, our little bed will be flowering: this a most pleasing station and shelter from the ardor of the bloods. Nor is there much to be feared by us from the domestic enemy of the restless tinder; for, sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb piously immolated for us, as with the warmest dew of hyssop, we shall boil away all the phlegm of noxious pleasure, and shall present our members to serve justice unto sanctification.

[32] The fight, if any is to be entered, will be brief; a certain victory is promised: his consent being obtained, a reward is prepared in the heavens, eternal, with those who kept chastity, whether inviolate in virginity, or asserted from marriage; which most pleasing victim, if we wish, by equal consent we can offer to God. Although we do not abound in offspring, yet we are not without it; and if none were surviving, our heir will be Christ, who will make us his co-heirs in the kingdom of the Father. Meanwhile our life, incorrupt, will be an angelic life, and our abstinence the joy of the angels ^a." While John spoke these things, Blasia's inward parts were moved, and her heart was dissolved into the dew of sweet tears; but the Lord opening her heart to attend to the eloquence of comeliness and beauty which the spirit poured through the mouth of her husband, with most ready vows she assented to his petitions, and, the faculty of divorce being made, each yielded the right which they had mutually given in the Sacrament of their bodies, and from the silver state of matrimony they migrated into the golden one of celibacy.

[33] Here John, bathed with the most limpid joy, immediately bending his knees to the ground, he emits the vow of chastity, and his mind and prayer, full of reverence and love, being turned to God, conceived a vow almost in this formula: "Almighty and merciful God, since Blasia (and she herself present heard and consented), whom you had joined to me in marriage and love as a most faithful wife, has not disdained to obey me, and has granted to me asking the dominion of her body, which she possessed, I acknowledge this recent gift from your clemency and love, and in thanksgiving I, an unworthy sinner and wretched little man, before your divine and immense majesty, propose to keep chastity as long as I live, and, that the purpose may be firmer, I bind myself by a vow. Deign, O most benign God and father of my life, to admit my holocaust into an odor of sweetness, and to bestow abundant grace of fulfilling it ^b." With what sense of piety these things were uttered by John, with what tenderness of heart heard by Blasia, the tears flowing on either side can indicate, but by no means could words plainly express…

[34] and although after this he suffered lesser goads of the flesh, The first blessing, therefore, bestowed on John after the emitted vow of chastity, was an infusion of divine grace more abundant than usual, not only sanctifying his soul, which is its first gift, granted to all the just without distinction, but so raising him on high that he seemed to have been changed into a spirit devoid of flesh.

For that fruit which is of a peculiar benevolence shown to few accompanied this affluence of grace, a comely gift, by which the tinder of the nature vitiated in Adam, the root of intemperance, was so repressed and weakened, that it emitted no further sparks of lust, or, gently arising, straightway with no difficulty repressed them: and thus its own place being left to the tranquillity of mind and the quiet of conscience, free from all contagion, it afforded to the Holy Spirit a pleasant and clean habitation in its purity…

[35] yet by various afflictions Nor yet, fortified with so firm a protection, did he think himself safe from the snares and assaults, by which the conspired soldiery of the pit strives to steal away the eminent treasure hidden in earthen vessels; but he applied the sharpest diligence, that he might guard it unharmed and inviolate. Therefore at first indeed in fastings he held that moderation which his strength could bear, and which would not bring in a violence hostile to constancy, lest health, shaken at once, should succumb to unwonted burdens, and there should be a return to the former delights. But the wheel of fervor running, it came to this, that only so much food was indulged to the body as seemed scarcely necessary for retaining the spirit within the members. His bed either hard planks or the bare ground afforded; his sleep short and sparing, but no less sweet than once soft mattresses and silken couches would have conciliated. The other most of the night hours he gave to prayer and contemplation…

[36] he tamed his body, To his daily works he was accustomed to premise the hearing of the Mass in the morning every day, and thereafter to permit no part to go by empty of the duties of a Christian man. Now to visit hospitals and minister to the sick, at other times to reconcile those at variance among themselves, to be present to and help widows and orphans; to sow pious sermons everywhere, to invite these to the amendment of their manners, to console those in tribulation, to do good to all both by counsel and by largess, because he deemed beneficence toward men of every condition the most excellent kind of divine imitation.

[37] he resolved to add poverty to conjugal abstinence. But to him gathering fruits of this kind from the vow of chastity the Father of lights showed a still more excellent way, which his only-begotten Son, made master of our race, indicated to the one asserting that he had kept the commandments from his youth and yet desiring something more, by doing which he might possess eternal life; for he heard: "If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor." Which John, weighing carefully, asserted that less would be done to satisfy himself and his conscience, until, all that he possessed being left, naked he should follow the naked Savior, and to the vow of chastity, by which he had already bound himself, should join another, of poverty, by which he should both be despoiled of things had and abdicate the faculty of having for the future; how prettily this succeeded for him, I shall relate a little later…

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

The election of a companion, and his introduction to a similar norm of the Apostolic life. Close was the intimacy of Columbinus with Francis Vincent ^a, commonly called Mini, and the sincere communication of the secrets of the heart, Blessed John, his friend such as is found among friends, only the few and true. He therefore occurs first, upon whom he might cast his eyes and hope, because he hoped that the greatest profit from his conversion would flow out upon the peoples. For sprung from the primary nobility of Siena, he flourished in numerous kinship and riches, besides other implanted goods of judgment, prudence, and dexterity in conducting affairs, which had begotten for him great authority among the citizens. Having therefore first earnestly and humbly consulted God with prayers, he resolved candidly to open to him his recent deliberation of instituting his life according to the Apostolic form, and to endeavor with all his power and zeal to lead his friend also to the same.

[39] Wherefore he repeated to him again and again, in season and out of season, rouses him with various reasonings the things which he thought would avail to storm the citadel of his mind, wandering by desire and care through earthly things, and procuring wealth and honors with anxious solicitude. "What, I ask you," he was wont to say, "from all the labors and sweats by which we labor upon the earth, what, I say, do we think we shall at last obtain? Can our hope be greater than that our wealth be increased, or that the conveniences and delights of dignity and of a fleeting life be procured? And yet these are fragile, and are borne by the uncertain breath of fortune, they flow in and slip away, and meanwhile, while they are possessed, they are snares impeding the course to the kingdoms of heaven; thorns which tear the conscience, and make it guilty of Gehenna, while they are too greedily sought, or too avariciously kept; which perils and harms scarcely ever are absent from them, and if they were absent, they are a vapor appearing for a little, and at last, with life, are deserted and desert us.

[40] Of how great prudence, therefore, would it be to follow the counsels of Christ inviting to the contempt of them and crying out: 'Everyone who has not renounced all that he possesses cannot be my disciple?' Of how great felicity to enter and tread the royal way of divine servitude and Evangelical perfection, to despise riches, to imitate the Apostles and their followers, to bid farewell to the world and to all its vanity, to fix one's foot in eternity, and, supported on the wings of poverty, to tend toward it? These things indeed rightly weighed, as you yourself could note from the change of my manners, had so much weight with me, that I have altogether resolved to carry out what I urge, and, all things being despised which hitherto I possess, to follow the Savior, to put his cross on my shoulders, to cling to the footsteps of the Saints who reign with Christ.

[41] and exhorts him, One thing there is which can fulfill the sum of my desires in this endeavor, if, as you have experienced me faithful and a lover of you, not cold, through many years, so it may befall me for the rest of my life to have you as companion in those things which are of eternal salvation, and, together with me, submitting your neck to the sweet yoke of Christ. Well I see, labor, poverty, mortification, the judgments of men, can terrify, and draw the hand away from taking hold of the plow; but faith opposes to these terrors the coming glory and the crown prepared for pains. Hope gives courage and strengthens by the certitude of promises for overcoming all arduous things. Charity, moreover, lessens all difficulties, and sprinkles all bitter things with a sweet savor. And Jesus Christ will be present in our midst, that Son of God and God, not only master and friend; but also brother and mother, destined to be so, of those who do the will of the eternal Father; how much more of those who, hearing his voice, seek nothing else in this pilgrimage, desire nothing more ardently, than, as he himself walked, to walk themselves ^b?"

[42] and at last leads him, With the strokes of this golden mallet John quite often beat the ears of his friend and sought the citadel of his breast, and so long insisted on soliciting the one not unwillingly listening, until he bent and drew him to his own opinion. Those words, sounding the Gospel, flowed into Vincent's inmost parts, and their truth was distilled into a heart not depraved and gradually to be healed: for at the beginning indeed a slight warmth, gently affecting, permeated his veins, but then, as the persuasions and sacred sayings were repeated, it gradually migrated into a heat of affection for cleaving to Christ and, for his love, of reckoning riches and whatever the world promises as mud. At last he yielded to the exhortations, and resolved to join himself to John, now clad in humility fitting to Christian profession, and a strong subduer of his own body: nor, using any tardiness, did he open his own deliberation to him, to entering upon which the frequent persuasions availed much, but still more the supernal light and interior calling…

[43] that he might lead an austere life with him, Increased therefore by this companion, John, and with a new spirit, thanks being earnestly rendered to God, began more freely to profess openly the Gospel which he bore in his breast, and to open a way to the enclosed flame eager to burst forth. For, laying aside the garments which hitherto he had worn for adornment and elegance in the manner of nobles, he puts on viler ones such as the common people wear, and places a cloak consonant with them on his shoulders;… nor, thus clad, did he blush to go forth into the public sight of the city, and to declare in the Evangelical poor man a new soldier of Christ. The money before this scraped together with great efforts and savings, and shut in inexorable coffers, he began largely to distribute to the poor, both those he met and those he sought out, and, if he happened to find any sick in the crossroads, these he benignly gathered and brought into some dwelling, and provided the expenses by which the limbs consumed by languors and abstinence might be cherished.

[44] When his friends admonished him and sang the old song, in which manner of living that he must act more cautiously, lest he be reduced to want and mendicancy, he answered freely that excessive caution is a kind of infidelity, that nothing was dearer to him than, his whole substance being distributed to the poor, to be reduced to the utmost destitution and to live by begging, nor would he procrastinate, unless by the laws of charity and justice he were forbidden, ordering that regard be had for his household in the distribution; that he placed it in great felicity to have the Lord of the world as his possession, and to sing with the Prophet: "The Lord is my portion."

[45] And that open answer was a tacit invitation to imitation not altogether fruitless: both constantly persevering for although besides Vincent no one, at that time indeed, followed his example, yet he attained this, that he stopped the mouth of troublesome interrupters, and they ceased to disapprove what they before calumniated; nay rather it seemed a kind of approbation, that they commended themselves to the prayers of him and his Companion: for this one constantly adhered to Columbinus, using the same manner of living with him, largely pouring out alms, strenuous in self-denial, generous in the contempt of the world, fervent in the acquisition of virtues, constant in divine service, so that already then in the two, still living among seculars, a certain more illustrious form of perfect religious shone forth, and drew to itself the eye and mouths of the whole city.

[46] And although most of the kinship of both was struck by the strangeness of their deeds, they despise the various judgments of men. reckoning it a disgrace that two of the more illustrious heads of their families should lower their family nobility to abject ministries, and exhaust their houses with profuse largesses, yet they themselves, esteeming the judgments of men as nothing, passed by their complaints and detractions with a deaf ear, and, fixed in heart in heaven, did not depart from their step; but rather solidified their footsteps upon the rock, which is Christ, in whom to stand still is to advance, and to hasten with a favorable course to the goal of those contending in the Christian contest…

NOTES.

CHAPTER V.

The Blessed one's illness, his secret flight to the hospital, and his vexation on the part of his wife on account of his poor and vile manner of living. Blessed John, laboring under a fever, Amid the assiduous labors of his new life and the continual mortification of body and soul, as Columbinus offered the sacrifice of penance, a fever invades him and fastens him to his bed. But his mind, ready to suffer, with great submission and joy, recognizing in his sickness the gift of God scourging every son whom he receives, deems it little to render thanks to him for the gift, unless he make the disease besides a goad to himself of augmenting his love, and of declaring it by some magnificent endeavor. Therefore the troubles of the disease and the febrile ardors he not only tolerates with an equal mind, but esteems as delights, and vehemently desires that graver paroxysms recur daily.

[48] on account of the excessive care of his household for him, By a token by no means obscure of a thing not so easy of belief is the ingenious and pious theft of himself, while sick, made from his household, to whom, thinking nothing such, by a secret flight he withdraws himself and seeks a place where he may hide, and experience the inconveniences common to the needy lying sick. "Do you then," he cried out to himself, "go on snoring in the embrace of a most soft couch, and blush not to grow slack in idle feathers, a delicate soldier of that Leader who had not where to lay his head, nor where to lie, except on the hard wood of the cross? Will you then refresh with exquisite viands and little broths and dainties your body soon to pass into decay and gore, falsely feigning yourself a disciple of the Master, who with gall and vinegar was given to drink? And will you endure, a wicked servant of a Lord not having in his tribulation one to console or help him, that the cares of Blasia's and the household service should never take rest from serving you? Better things, O God! It does not befit delicate limbs to live under a thorny head, nor the poverty of its lover to feel languors and want, to whom, dying, there stood as beloved companions nakedness, extreme thirst, the want of all solace and help.

[49] he secretly flees to the hospital I will rise therefore and go about the city, and the poverty which within I do not find, without in her dwellings I will seek, if perhaps she receive me as one of her little beggars, and admit me to her slender and sparing table, to be envied by the banquets of the rich." Amid which thoughts and kindled vows of suffering, at a less observable hour (perhaps in the morning), when after the vigils of the night all the household are more sweetly lulled in sleep, he snatches himself from bed, and, wrapping his shoulders with a coverlet in place of garments, goes out from the house, and gradually, with faltering step, to the hospital, none accompanying, he creeps along, which, the lowest among the other more celebrated ones of the city, and meanly furnished, he thought, that he might more holily labor for poverty. Here earnest prayers obtained entrance from the rectors, and got a little bed in the throng of poor wretches lying there. He lay hidden among these for two days, like one from the crossroads, the moderators being ignorant of what land and how great a man he was, and treating him no more honorably than the other lying sick.

[50] At this he himself greatly rejoiced, so cautious lest by any sign he should betray himself, in which he lay hidden for some days, and lose these his delights, notice arising from somewhere, and be compelled to depart. But this joy was brief: for when a little after he had set foot out of the house, Blasia and Vincent, having entered the chamber, the bed empty of the sick man they beheld, struck at once with fear and amazement, are agitated by various thoughts, nor can they divine what has been done with John; yet they suspect the flight of the man who had carried off the coverlet, and conjecture that he has hidden himself in some cavern, that he may be more miserably sick, and consumed by want.

[51] They interrogate the servants, they seek among kinsmen and friends, and sought in vain through the city, they go to the hospitals, and omit no corner unexplored in which they by probable conjecture suppose the fugitive lies hidden. But they hunt the winds; nowhere does the sick man appear. At last, driven by despair rather than hope, they enter the little hospital placed in a secluded corner of the city, attentively survey the individual pallets, John meanwhile keeping silent and covering himself; but in vain, because by the very covering with which he hid himself he was detected: for to the curious searchers was set the shape and color of the coverlet with which he had wrapped himself, and, at once recognized by Blasia, to whom the whole furniture of the house was known, it made the fugitive manifest.

[52] Running thither together with Vincent, with an amicable complaint she testified her grief and asks, at last he is found, what cause there is why, his own home and bed being left, he has fled to a strange hovel, and cast himself into the straits of another's dwelling and provision? Whether some offense had given occasion for flight, or whether a domestic fault or error at home had displeased him, which he judged should be chastised by desertion? Let him see and weigh, according to his prudence, whether it befits a senatorial man to lie among the refuse of the commons, and to expose the nobility of his family to accusations and the gibes of the crowd.

[53] To which John: "Why are you disturbed, or why are you troublesome to me? and rejoicing in poverty and inconveniences One cause only impelled me to come hither; namely your excessive indulgence and superfluous care in treating this wretched body, the flattering enemy, that is, of the spirit, to be tamed even in infirmity by the rein of penance. Best is it for me on this little bed. Permit, I pray you, this poor little woman to approach me: for she brings a dish of savory pennyroyal ^a to satisfy my hunger, to which your broths have nothing similar in sweetness. But of my return cease to hope…"

[54] Here Blasia and Vincent insist with prayers and many reasonings, he scarcely suffers himself to be led home. drawn from decorum, from the equitable and just, that that hospitable shrine stands for beggars laboring in extremity, that against right and religion it is occupied by a noble rich man, that in vain and unwisely the title of poverty is put forward, which displeases God and the heavenly ones, and raises laughter among men… By tears besides and by adjurations added to the arguments his softened heart at last yielded, and than he had come more becomingly he was led home. This fever held for some while, and shook his already wearied limbs with fasting and various affliction; but his mind, rising to heaven, kept its vigor… This one thing grieved him, that he was treated too delicately: for the rest, always intent on God, he fed his mind with divine thoughts; but his tongue, when he was alone, he loosed into the praises of that Majesty. When friends visited him, he proclaimed his charity poured out toward the human race and his most benevolent providence, so that, sick in body, he brought some medicine to the minds of the ailing, consolation to those in good health, and no one departed from the chamber of the sick man not better than when he entered.

[55] The febrile affliction was succeeded by another vexation from his wife Blasia, so much the graver as it was less expected. His wife, to blessed John,

Into whose mind, I beseech, would it have come; that Blasia, otherwise a woman of placid manners and pacified disposition, who in recalling her Husband to good fruit had labored with the utmost zeal and all exertion, as I mentioned above, then, her will being reversed, was an obstacle to him pursuing the way of perfection, and, like one of the foolish women, tried by most wicked address to recall him from what he had begun? And that temptation was, by its importunity and pertinacity, almost fatal: for eight years ^b it exercised John's patience, in all which time each played their part, now craftiness armed with allurement, now anger with fickle levity accusing, and carping at his manners and the institute of life to which John had devoted himself.

[56] with objurgations, For sometimes, indignant at the vileness of the foods on which he was wont to feed, and of the garments which he put on, she cried out: "How long at last shall I bear these sordid and unclean things? Or did I come hither, bearing the name of wife, but in the very fact an unhappy handmaid of an unhappier lord, to lead my days in squalor and mourning? What kind of appearance of holiness is this, to walk in rustic habit in the company of the nobility, and among the wedges of kinsmen to represent a hermit? To turn the family estate upside down, to put off altogether all care of the household, to act the executioner of himself by immoderate maceration?" … Although he by no means omitted to still the wranglings by the weight of reasonings, according to the opportunity of place and time, yet for the most part he dissembled that he heard, and consoled his grief with silence…

[57] with flatteries, Nor yet did Blasia despond in mind; but when she saw harsh things succeed less, she applied her mind to gentle ones, and made for herself a hope from blandishments which anger and expostulations had rendered vain. She fled to the allurements of words which testified honeyed love and conjugal affection. Counsels were given thence, set forth full of prudence and moderation. That immoderate fervor should be checked with reins, lest it stray from reason and the law of God; that a part of the night indeed could be granted to prayer, but that its own share was owed also to the quiet necessary for life; that fasts are laudable which afflict the flesh, not which oppress and kill it; that singularity in dress, which strikes the eyes of the crowd and moves admiration or laughter, is exposed to the peril of pride and the reprehension of men, and gives a handle to detraction, and therefore pleases neither God nor the heavenly ones; that more pleasing are the several things which are done privately and secretly, than those which are done openly before the crowd; that the prayer which is made in secret, the door being shut, is praised, and the alms held out by the right hand, the left being ignorant.

[58] with prayers and tears Nor were prayers lacking, that if any spark of affection toward his wretched wife still remained in the marital breast, he would remit a little of his intolerable harshness, which, being violent, would be of brief and to-be-repented duration. "By whatever rights and sacraments joined us, beloved John, I pray and adjure you, do not wish to be before my eyes the murderer of yourself and me. But if the holy fellowships of the spirit no longer hold either the names or the offices of nuptials, yet the faith by which we joined right hands compels me, piety, religion, the worship by which we venerate God, to ask you to put on a little milder thoughts and to rage more remissly against your flesh, which, while you dreadfully consume, you consume mine also." And she went on to beseech, had not sobs and a shower of tears rolled up her wavering words.

[59] But the strong Athlete of Christ, although by nature humane and benign, is no more softened by this sweet speech strives in vain to persuade, than if he were hard flint, or the Marpesian crag stood… Yet lest to the afflicted he should add affliction by taciturnity, which might smell of contempt, he answered in few words which could lessen her grief, and teach the one ignorant of divine secrets to be more salutarily wise. He wondered, first of all, vehemently, that she who had been so solicitous about his salvation, when he himself, forgetful of it, wandered through the empty appearances of desires and lying madnesses, now, having obtained her wish, was sad, and complained tearfully that she had found the drachma which she had lost, and that to the folds of the Savior had returned the sheep which had perished: that they contradicted the Gospel, which persuaded to come down from the housetop and again to put on the old tunic which he had put off. That she had once been pious and clement, who to him plunged in the deep darkness of vices had held out a benevolent hand; now turned into a cruel one, who groaned at one placed in a place of pasture and serenity, and persuaded him to return to the thorn-brakes.

[60] To whom she: "Far be it from me to persuade evils, I who always wished good things; that he should desert the austere and abject norm of life: but as those who wish rain in time of drought for fruitfulness, would not wish a flood for submersion and sterility, so I desired for your once-parched breast a shower by which devotion might be watered, not a deluge by which soundness would be choked, urbanity submerged, humanity buried." To whom far more wisely John: "Believe me, Blasia, the whole world is placed in wickedness and lies in darkness: it feigns dreams for itself in the uncertainty of riches and pursues shadows in the slipperiness of desires, and yet is so greatly loved, as if the highest good were placed in it… Blessed are those whom the Lord rouses from the sleep of torpor and ignorance, and teaches the way of truth: more blessed those whom he draws to Christ, that they may walk as he himself walked. And I indeed confess to you frankly, my sister, from that day on which the divine sun illumined my darkness and led me out of the prison of infirmity, in which lying I was running to death, bound with the chains of avarice, as you well know, I have been so inflamed with love of the cross and of Christ crucified, that sweetness and honey seem to me the things which the world reputes bitter and horrid…

[61] But if this new song be unpleasant in the ears of my sister and the yoke seem heavy which to me is light and sweet, for he himself, going on bravely in the seized way of perfection it will be easy to free herself from this trouble: for we loosed the bond of the bed by mutual consent; what hinders that we should also dissolve that of habitation? For thus, freed from all worldly bonds, we shall more firmly cleave to God; you indeed, as befits an honorable woman, at home intent on prayer and good works; but I outside through the streets and squares, preaching the name of Jesus Christ to men."

[62] Here she, growing hot: "Would," she said, "that I had never consented to your absurd petition! he patiently tolerates the frequent wranglings of his wife. For I am not ignorant of the precept of the Apostle, forbidding one bound to a wife to seek loosing, so that to me now they seem the voices of a howling wolf, demanding further another loosing and a separation of habitation; although more horrible than any divorce is that continual familiar spectre of a ragged and squalid man, such as scarcely the wilderness would bear and remote deserts would suffer, much less the homes of nobles and the concourse of kinsmen, who with a blush are compelled to hear what by others, beheld, is received not without laughter or indignation, approved by none, condemned as folly by many. Therefore let my deserter return to his mind, if he loves domestic quiet, and wishes his good name, which to neglect according to the sacred Oracles is a crime, to be safe among outsiders": with which and other similar answers to the same effect the ears of the most gentle John were very often beaten, who very rarely had reproofs in his mouth; and his heart was struck with goads, grieving at the blindness and the womanly boldness ^c verging almost into petulance. But the Lord looked upon and consoled the grief of his Servant.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VI.

The wondrous splendor of the Blessed one praying, the benign reception of Christ under the form of a leper, divine consolation, and at last the hardness of his wife softened by these miracles.

[63] The Blessed one, radiating with heavenly light in the darkness God is called the Ocean of consolation. Who spread the sails of hope through him, and has not experienced breezes sweetly breathing? In him hoped the heart of John, when the waters entered even to his soul, and he was helped; first indeed by the affluence of internal consolation, which overcame the bitterness of affliction; then by the wondrousness of signs, by which at last all mist and bitterness was wiped from the mind of Blasia. Of these this was the first. On a certain untimely night, which, by custom, John spent in vigil amid prayers, he felt his soul filled with so great a splendor, that his body also outwardly radiated, and the chamber gleamed as with the noonday sun.

[64] a certain woman beholds, There was kept in those days in that house a noble woman, Alexia Bandinella, a kinswoman of Blasia, inasmuch as she was married to a Cerretano, invited thither to relieve the mourning of her kinswoman which John's life and manners had brought, as has been mentioned. She, amid the nocturnal darkness, saw the walls of the nearby chamber, in which he abode, shine with a most bright light, and, thinking it flowed from no other source than from the candle of the watching John, was in no way moved. But when she noticed the brightness lasted long, and, greater than could be emitted from a candle, thought not without reason that that unwonted light was something, she did not hesitate to explore it more closely.

[65] With slow step, therefore, having entered thither, she beholds the Servant of God fixed on the ground and on every side surrounded with rays, who summons the wife of blessed John to see that splendor. and, astonished at the miracle, withdraws, and, having met Blasia, narrates what she saw, and invites her to see it. This one complies, not so much from a desire of seeing, as from a will of gratifying her inviting kinswoman, lest she seem to delay. She approaches, beholds him prostrate, is dazzled by the rays, stands in wonder, and yet utters not a little word, nor gives a sign of a pacified mind and confessing her error: so gross clouds, that is, had overspread the void of the feminine breast, that they could not be dispelled even by the splendor of the supernal light ^a.

[66] There followed another miracle so bright, that, its force overcoming her obstinacy, she ceased to bark any further, At another time the same Man a poor leper and passed into admiration and reverence of the Husband long hated. Thus the matter was. John and Francis were going together to the chief temple of the city, to be present at the sacrifice of the Mass. Before the doors, beset with a herd of little beggars, a certain one lay half-naked, save that by leprosy he was foully covered from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. Columbinus stopped at the pitiable sight, and, turning to his companion: "Behold," he said, "my Francis, with how great misery and torment that poor little man, oppressed, lies on the ground, and although his necessity and pain be so great, yet he is destitute of all human help… How opportunely would it be done, if, lifted upon our shoulders, we should carry him to our house and comfortably tend him?"

[67] Francis approved the counsel, and also offered his help to carry it out. carries home upon his own shoulders, his wife being indignant on that account, Then Columbinus goes to the leper, gently raised places him on his shoulders, and, they carrying him, brings him into his house: as they went, now his right hand, now his left he brings to his mouth to be kissed, and completes that short journey so pleasantly, that he affirmed that he had felt no trouble or nausea at all, and those believed him affirming it who beheld the flashing flame of love and cheerfulness from his eyes and whole countenance. When he brought his foot within the threshold, Blasia, beholding the fetid spectacle, cries out: "Away, away with this decay and pestilence! Truly this misfortune too was wanting to my calamity, that our roofs should grow foul with stench and gore, and be turned into receptacles of the decayed. But I will change my dwelling, nay even my soil: I will go away expelled from the house, and, having suffered the extremes of tolerance, I shall not be accused of impatience or petulance, for consulting my safety and my soundness, and leaving a free dwelling to your pities."

[68] To whom gently and tranquilly Columbinus: "I pray you,

with what gentle words lady, bear it a little, spare your anger, spare your fury; cease to be indignant against this poor little man and against us. This man equally, like us, is the creature of God, and by the precious blood of his Son, like us, redeemed. Therefore suffer yourself, by the love of Jesus Christ, to be asked, not to disdain to make available the use of your bed, in which the poor wretch may rest a little while, until I procure the necessaries for refreshing him." For he sought another's bed, who had abdicated his own, and had long been accustomed to lie on bare planks. But here indeed she began to rave like a drunken woman and to fill the neighborhood with clamors, to deny, to call heaven and earth to witness, that she would never make available her bed to that cancer.

[69] and with pious admonitions tries in vain to appease her; To whom John: "Ah, my Blasia, let us recall our sins, by which we incur the anger of the divine majesty; and it will seem less grievous, nor intolerable, to redeem the penalties due to us for them by this, however small, price of mercy. Under this deformity of a mask lies hidden the appearance of Christ suffering, who asserted that whatever we do to one such in his name would be done to himself. Assuredly, if again Christ the Lord himself should descend from heaven, and offer himself to our sight such as he was foreseen by Isaiah many ages before, having neither appearance nor comeliness, foully marred with leprosy and wounds and the last of men, we should reckon it good fortune and favor to receive him with hospitality and bed, to cherish, to refresh him. And yet he himself confessed: 'He who receives one of these, such as this is, whom we behold, receives me.' In what, therefore, will our faith show itself, if we turn away Christ in his poor man, or by what reasoning will our charity be safe and sound, if we do not show the bowels of piety toward him?" Nor yet did he appease with his words the woman who could have soothed monsters. She still swells with anger and fury, and protests that she will not thereafter touch nor approach the bed which that gore had befouled and infected.

[70] wherefore, caring nothing for her wranglings, he washes the leper Then John, noticing that he sang to the deaf: "Come," he said, "Vincent, let us prepare a bath as quickly as possible, and wash the ulcers and filth of this our brother." Which prepared, both apply their hands to the ulcerous man, cleanse, wipe, and, with an unwonted affection of charity, kiss him. Nay even (which the ears can scarcely bear to hear without the indignation of a nauseating stomach) with such joys in that work was John bathed, that he devised a new kind of mortification, which he might pay to the Lord in thanksgiving; namely he filled a cup from the filth of that very basin, and, intrepid, did not shrink from drinking it off, no otherwise than if with a most delightfully sweet cup he pleasantly refreshed himself.

[71] and places him on a soft bed, Thereupon, the leper being wiped and refreshed, he composes him, according to his liberty, on Blasia's bed, as being softer with linens and feathers, whatever she, grinning, might snarl. Certainly indeed she could not justly complain of injustice as the mother of the family, or accuse her husband of usurpation of her bed, she unwilling, with whom there remained still the entire dominion over the whole estate; and that he had used his right laudably a wondrous event declared…

[72] [and while he is compelled to be a little absent, he commends the care of him to his wife,] John, the assiduous and provident guardian of the sick man, that he might not be left alone for even a point of time, about to go out from the house with Francis for the sake of hearing the Mass, asks Blasia, until after a short space he return, to take care of him, lest perhaps he suffer something graver through that little delay. But she, still boiling with bile, gnashing something rude and savage with her teeth, turns her back, and turns aside elsewhere to cook her rage and grief. There, the witnesses removed, gradually she begins to grow quiet and to admit better thoughts into her mind, to look up to the Man's notable charity and self-denial, and to compare it with her own obstinacy: that, unless she put off her stubbornness and put on the bowels of mercy, she feared lest she provoke God's anger against herself, that it did not befit a well-mannered wife arrogantly to wrangle with her husband, that it was a crime for a Christian woman to turn away the poor, to be unkind to those needing her help, and things akin to these, which by the benign Spirit were sent into the feminine heart to be softened.

[73] Thus affected, with straight step she betakes herself to the chamber of the lying leper, and, while she opens the door, is breathed upon by so sweet an odor, who, about to enter the chamber of the leper, perceives a most fragrant odor. that a like one, to be expected from flowery gardens or precious perfume-boxes, she held for certain was nowhere on earth. And it was an opportune poultice for the inveterate wound, and what the medicines of Columbinus's examples and discourses had not been able to heal to that day, the heavenly fragrance in a moment overspread and wholly healed: for, on this side fixed by amazement, on that struck back by shame, she did not dare to penetrate into the chamber; but immediately goes backward, judging what was the case, that under the foulness of that figure lay hidden something most beautiful and divine, which, as a pledge of the eminent benevolence of her Husband, was set forth from heaven to his mercy: by which goad she, pricked, and by the consciousness of her past petulance, suffused with shame, loosens the reins to tears, and from flint is suddenly changed into a fountain.

[74] Meanwhile John and Francis return from the temple, Meanwhile the Husband, returned home with his companion and bring with them certain sweetmeats bought for the solace of their sick man: Blasia meets them entering, drenched with weeping and struck with grief, which she could scarcely dissemble. John asks the cause of her groans, and, suspecting perhaps that it was some misfortune of his sick man; "How does our leper fare?" he says. She answered: "Go and see." And when she had whispered a few words about the odor which she had drawn in, she turned aside to another part, that she might more securely lament.

[75] They, with a desire of seeing and consoling their beloved sick man, does not find the sick man, who had disappeared, by the unexpected report of the breathing odor augmented, hasten forthwith to meet him, and are indeed suffused with the admirable sweetness of the fragrance left in the chamber; but the sick man had flown away from the bed, nor did they behold in it anything but the linens, the pillows, and all the furniture composed so rightly and elegantly, as if a sedulous hand of servants had composed it for the service of a lord ^b. Further, they acknowledged the heavenly condescension, and, admiring the greatness of the benefit from Christ in the hospitality to be admitted, their knees cast to the ground, poured themselves out into thanksgivings and divine praises; but with what feeling and ardor of soul, who could explain by speech, or comprehend by mind, except he who has experienced it? … And lest the fame of the miracle should go abroad, and thence some honor redound upon his own head, John severely charges Blasia, that, while he survived, she should make not a little word to any mortal about it: if she do otherwise, let her know and fear the divine vengeance, prepared for her who dared to violate her husband's precept.

[76] Two other benefits followed this which has been narrated, and afterward he learns by divine revelation, both equal in usefulness and not unequal in splendor. The one is the illustrious apparition of Christ the Lord ^c, and familiar address, as of friend to friend: for on the following night, while Columbinus revolved with himself in mind the series of the fair event, and was carried away by the vehemence of his love toward Jesus Christ, who, under the likeness of a leper, had prettily and amicably mocked him, behold, again the unforeseen guest, not, as yesterday, displaying the horror of leprosy, but conspicuous with clear light, presents himself to be seen by the one praying, and most gently addressing him: "I have come to give you thanks, my John, that yesterday on your shoulders you brought me into your house, washed me in a bath, refreshed me with food, laid me on a soft bed.

[77] Since therefore you received me on earth and cherished me, I too will receive you in heaven, that Christ had lain hidden under this form of a leper, and with my elect I will feed you with the bread of angels, and refresh you with the food of immortality. Meanwhile be strong and act constantly, as my servant and athlete, and doubt not that I shall be with you always." Which having spoken, he ceased to appear to his eyes, and stuck in his heart firmly and sweetly: but it pleased him to leave traces of his presence, a splendor wonderfully illuminating the whole chamber, and in the breast of John a heavenly flame of most limpid joy, such as the blessed minds taste, who by the torrent of delight are given drink in the heavens…

[78] and thus from his wife, overcome by this prodigy, he obtained free faculty, The other benefit from the aforesaid mercy toward the leper was common to both spouses: for Blasia, struck with admiration of the unexpected prodigy, and wholly overcome, openly knew that she had hitherto resisted the Spirit of the Lord, by which her Husband was impelled, and, led by penance, all indignation being laid aside, not only was willingly and gladly reconciled to her Husband; but besides, which she knew would be most pleasing to him, all the rights of matrimony which were with her, she cast into his arbitration, and made free power for him of keeping the vow of chastity, of distributing to the poor, of tending the sick at home or abroad at his pleasure; finally that it was permitted him, as far as she was concerned, to do whatever he willed, he who was led by the Spirit of God, and had been taught to do the things pleasing to it: but that he should treat her as one of his handmaids; that she would never thereafter be forgetful of the duty and reverence owed to a lord and a brother, provided he go on to love her too as a sister, and forget not to commend her to the supreme Creator with prayers.

[79] that he might, according to his own arbitration, institute a poor and hard life. Columbinus acknowledged in the most desired gift of her spontaneous cession the hand of the Lord, and accepted it at once from her ceding, lest the faculty of drawing back should remain for the future, and that the mutually-entered irrevocable pact might confirm the wills of both in the solidity of the seized purpose of serving God. He added besides, from his inmost heart, thanks, and promised a constancy of love more than conjugal. Further, interpreting the loosing made for him from a most troublesome obligation as a new goad to love God daily more, he renews the vows of a more fervent life, and sings with the sacred Psalmist: "Now I have begun"; hitherto he seemed to himself to have profited little, unless he should ruin the monster of avarice, and storm it with the arms of poverty, and prepare a new crown for his triumph.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VII.

The complete abdication of his goods, the vehement love of poverty, and the prodigious contempt of honor.

[80] All the bonds of marriage being therefore broken, which Blasia had willingly before loosed, persevering to sing lovingly and devoutly to the Lord, he took up that Davidic saying: John Columbinus, together with his companion "You have burst my bonds, to you will I sacrifice a host of praise, and I will invoke the name of the Lord." And that the other bonds too, obstructing a most absolute immolation, might be removed, he deemed it not enough for beginning to have put off the desire of human things, unless besides he abdicated their dominion and possession for advancing: in which abdication, exposed to the judgments and accusations of the crowd for its singularity and strangeness, lest anything be done inconsiderately amiss, he maturely fled to the divine light and help. For, having taken counsel with Francis, in whom he desired a companion and imitator, it was resolved in common, with much prayer, fasting, alms, for a certain time earnestly to give himself to propitiating the divine godhead, and to explore the opinions of men eminent in doctrine and piety…

[81] Among these there was a certain one held by both as an oracle, he consults blessed Peter Petroni, to whom if they gave credence, they thought they set their foot in safety, and to refuse him they shrank from as a crime. This was Master Peter the Carthusian ^a, by country a Sienese, celebrated for the gift of the contemplation of divine things and the praise of holiness: whom when they had gone to, and had opened the manner of life entered upon and the deliberation of that to be entered, that he himself might prove the spirits, whether they were of God, he seemed to have borrowed his answer from holy Gregory, whose doctrine he had drawn from the same Master as he: namely that there are some who, amid the opulent things of the world, from the things possessed minister supports to the needy, defend the oppressed, and are intent on performing the other duties of charity; and these are said to offer sacrifices to the Creator; others who reserve nothing for themselves, but immolate their life, sense, tongue, faculties to almighty God, and make a holocaust, or rather become a holocaust, such as was that of Christ the Lord, who, though he was rich, became needy for us; to whom it is granted from heaven to follow poverty going before by the royal way, these walk securely and attain the kingdom of heaven: that the perfect servants of Christ wish to have nothing besides Christ: that this is the treasure and all the riches, to love and imitate Christ ^b.

[82] Those speaking such things they heard with attentive ears and minds and assented and approved his sayings as though uttered by the mouth of the Lord: in whose counsels he acquiesces, and lest they should seem to have received his grace in vain, thanks being rendered to the best counselor, they departed glad, resolved to leave all things which they possessed, to deny themselves, to take up their cross, and to follow Christ. But, not ignorant that by the Apostle he is convicted of being worse than an infidel who has not care of his own, especially his household, lest they should over-hastily commit to execution things which needed some delay; they provide first of all, lest what was necessary for the girls of both should be lacking to an education worthy of their birth, or lest they should be left to a doubtful guardianship outside the paternal care.

[83] and, his daughter being placed in the monastery of St. Abundius, Straightway therefore there occurs to his mind the house of the nuns of St. Abundius, of the Order of St. Benedict, of great esteem among the Sienese for regular observance and sanctity of manners, which at that time certain virgins of eminent probity augmented, especially Lady Paula Foresi, the superioress of the convent, held second to none in that place, both in dignity and in virtue and merit. John therefore consecrated to the Lord his little daughter Angelina, in her thirteenth year, of her own accord propense to religion, to be educated under the care of that mother. And when, as is customary for those admitted to the habit, the little virgin's name had to be changed, it pleased that she be called Magdalene, because with eminent piety and love the penitent Parent himself followed the Saint who is the mirror and exemplar of penance. But Francis cast his own five-year-old into the bosom and guardianship of the same mother, opportunely also, that when her age permitted, she might be enrolled in the number of the nuns.

[84] he distributed his faculties in three ways. Then followed the abdication of his goods, the distribution being made in this manner. First John divided his whole substance into three parts: one was assigned to the greater hospital of Siena; another was transferred into the rights of the monastery of St. Abundius; the third was assigned to the society of the blessed Virgin, which had before been erected in the same city by pious men. And because the chief regard was to be had of his wife, both by the mortgage of her dowry and by the law of blood and nature, the donation to the two last was made on this condition, that a certain sum of money, and provisions besides, should be paid to Blasia yearly, as much as should abundantly suffice for the liberal sustenance of herself and her handmaid, and that she herself freely and gladly consenting, nor asking or desiring more. But of Francis it seemed good to write the convent of St. Abundius sole heir, on this compact, that each year to six poor girls, if they should ask that so many be admitted, a place and religious habit should be granted altogether gratis…

[85] not even a farthing being retained for his own use. Although neither mediocre nor common are to be reputed the examples of poverty which John had hitherto given, yet, because to one striving toward the highest summit some impediments still made delay, that he might remove them, he instituted a manner of living, new indeed and arduous, but not unlike the primitive one of the Apostles: namely, not even a farthing of his own being retained for himself, he resolved to live on another's, and that begged and collected from door to door together with his companion Francis, that the food might be sweeter, which want should season, mendicancy should prepare, poverty should serve.

[86] After these things he lives by begging: There were not lacking among his kinsmen and friends several who, after that voluntary abdication of which we spoke, would have supplied all things necessary for his food not sparingly; nay rather some of them, notably ashamed, would have redeemed this disgrace of the family, as it seemed to them, and trouble at whatever price, if by any reason they could have brought him from the vileness of that gain to an honorable table. But every attempt of theirs was in vain; for the two disciples of Christ, taught more deeply in the recent school to be wise, did not even with fair ears admit their thoughts and persuasions, whose judgments differed exceedingly from the Evangelical counsels, so that the whole kinship understood that nothing else could be extorted from them, who had already condemned the riches and honors of the world in mendicancy, and panted for heaven and heavenly things with all the greediness and desire of their mind.

[87] And as the thought suggesting what they should eat or drink brought little solicitude and no anxiety, and with modest food so not much labor and diligence was spent in seeking their food: for it was taken most sparingly by those to whom the measure of eating was prescribed not by the necessity of preserving life, but by the ardor of penance. Fasting was held for a game, abstinence for refreshment; their food, fragments of bread, such as were given to those begging; their drink, cold water drawn from the fountain; other victuals scarcely ever any, nor were any but plebeian and modest ones indulged, which could rather excite hunger than allay it.

[88] Nor did they suffer their dress to be discordant with their food: and content with a vile garment, for in the first beginnings of his conversion Columbinus, content with a ruder cloth, retained the form of garments then more common: but afterward, farewell being bidden to faculties and secular business, clad in a short and tight cloak and, a vile little mantle being placed over his shoulders, he did not blush to go forth in public with bare head, and his legs exposed to all the injuries of the roads and seasons [d], besides the other afflictions by which his body was tormented, that vice might be consumed together with the body.

[89] What a spectacle that was, how wonderful, to see a senatorial man, the citizens wondering, he becomes daily more robust in body, once, in splendid garment, sitting at the helm of the commonwealth, hedged about by a troop of nobles, treading the squares of the city, surrounded by the frequent salutation and honor of the multitude, delicately cherishing his body with foods and garments; now unshod, half-naked, torn, a beggar to stand in the crossroads, to go about the crossways of the city, to stretch out his hand for alms and fragments of bread. Scarcely did the citizens, seized with amazement, believe their own eyes, how it could be that a man of strength by no means robust, and once, amid the roses of delights, subject to diseases, now amid the thorns of penance and the thickets of want, flowering with cheerfulness, vigorous in strength, and unbroken by labors. Was it because gladness fattens the bones, which sadness and care dry up? Or because a certain flame of the breast cherished the vital spirits, and the sparks of faith and charity flashing from his eyes brought serenity?

[90] He was once frequently vexed with anguishes of the stomach, for whose coldness and weakness a remedy was to be sought from the choice of foods. and stronger in stomach When his body began to be chastised by hunger and abstinence, all infirmity was abolished, his stomach strengthened, his strength augmented: for, the bilge of the humors hostile to it being drained, the matter of diseases was withdrawn, and the heat implanted by nature and diffused through the members consumed the superfluous and noxious, and thence its own vigor was added and restored to each part: although in this the many and by no means light or obscure indications show a cause higher than the powers and operation of nature.

[91] This especially, that in a raging winter, when the earth and air grow stiff with snows and winds, and in the very winter, scarcely covered, he burns. being asked by a friend perhaps met in the square, how he, almost naked, sustained the intolerable force of the cold, which the others, well cloaked and tunicked, could scarcely bear; he answered: "I pray you, stretch out your right hand," and, having grasped it, presses it to his open breast, and asks: "Do I seem to you to be cold?" "By no means," said that one, and straightway drawing back his hand, as if it had been cast into coals, "Wonder! What prodigy is this? Have I touched flesh or glowing iron?" And he is amazed that he is not consumed by the heat, whom before he wondered was not stiff with frost and ice…

[92] Columbinus, superior to all mortality, puts his hand to strong and unwonted things, An eminent despiser of himself namely such as the spirit working within suggests are to be done or to be borne. Such especially are to be reckoned the harshest chastisement of the body, the notable endurance of labors and injuries, the generous tolerance of adversities, the vehement ardor of charity toward God, and men, even enemies and hostile ones, and whatever else in the men of Apostolic perfection we admire. A widely-extending place for their narration is a whole volume, because none is void of admirable events: yet let these two mortifications be inserted here, publicly performed, because they are excellent, and rarely among mortals, few excepted, heard.

[93] he serves the cook, To the one the recollection of the honors and offices gave occasion, which the nobility and the commons were wont eagerly to confer on him who bore the chief magistracy in the commonwealth: for at once a certain indignation arose and a desire of chastising that pride and applause by a new kind of vengeance: and that it might be taken there, where the sin had been, he selected the senatorial palace, where the nine consuls and the rest of the senate had been wont to make his coronation. This dwelling therefore of his former domination and glory, as it were a stage he chooses of the most abject servitude and humility, devising it, whether from hatred of himself, or from the love of God, or from both being set before his mind? The chief cook of the palace, needing the labor of servants in the culinary ministries, with much prayer he solicits, and at last extorts consent, that he should by no means keep him from performing them, holding his admission as a benefit, which he promises to compensate by diligence, assiduity, and labor.

[94] and performs all the vile ministries, Having first obtained his wish, he diligently swept the pavements, carried wood, cleaned the dishes, washed the platters, turned the spit, in short omitted nothing of those things which the hired servants of that workshop are compelled to perform. And because that whole compass of the building is without water, nor enjoys any aqueduct or well, this province too the noble porter demands for himself, that from the public fountain of the greatest square he might fill the flagons, and openly, the people looking on, carry them into the kitchen for all opportune uses. Thence also whatever things are to be carried out he himself carries out, and what likewise are to be carried in he carries in, reckoning it a gain, that whatever of work or labor was to be divided with the other servants he performed alone, and that with as great alacrity as not even a courtier, for the sake of catching the prince's favor, diligent though and swift for executing his commands, would bring.

[95] wishing to receive no reward for his labor: This servitude held for two months, in all which time he could never be induced by anyone's exhortation or prayer to take a morsel of bread or a draught of wine from the palace store; but he lived by begging, and so sparingly, that he did not equal even by a rigid fast a defined ration. Nor in that magnificent house alone did he make it his custom to cast himself down to those servile offices, but also elsewhere, where he sometimes remembered himself to have been anticipated by honors, as if the place were purified by humility which, in his own judgment, had been defiled by proud arrogance.

What follows is not without pleasantness, joined to horror.

[96] nay rather, to avenge the past fault of vain little glory It was the custom of the Sienese nobility, on horses caparisoned and well adorned, to display a fair and pleasant pomp to the people on set days, and to go in troops about various places of the city, and that especially when the festal light imperiously commanded a vacation from the transaction of business. Recollecting himself once delighted with this relaxation and sociable riding, Columbinus, that whole equestrian vanity being condemned through the compunction of his heart, devised a means by which he might avenge the light fault of complacency and little glory with a grave penalty. Giving himself therefore to searching for an ass, and it being found, he asks its owner, known and familiar to him, not to be reluctant to lend it for a little time.

[97] He complies promptly; and John, the beast's back being mounted, sitting on an ass he exposes himself to the mockery of his fellow-citizens, proceeds straight to the public square (which commonly they call "del Campo"), and, a pretty muleteer made from a noble citizen, amid the crowded multitude rides up, and, that the laughter of the beholding crowd may be more prolix and more relishing, through the whole forum more than once leads about the Arcadian quadruped [f]: nor is there doubt that with greater delight he receives the mockeries and guffaws of the crowd about him, than once by riding he had received applause and honorable salutations; but still more delighted him the taunts and revilings of some, especially of the merchants, whom it was a pleasure to assail as a vile and insane head needing hellebore.

[98] But he, with glad and erect mind, and desirous of the salvation of those mocking, to whose mockery he repays salutary admonitions, his eyes cast into their very faces, as one having power, "Ho, you," he said, "I indeed am mocked by you profusely, nor am I indignant; but I no less mock you: namely I am reputed foolish, because I follow Christ. I number you among the unwise, because you are wise in the things that are the world's, not those of Jesus Christ. On which side of us stands wisdom, let it be the judgment of him who said: 'We are fools for Christ.'" At other times he was wont to say to his familiars: "Be mad, as much as you can, with the love of Jesus Christ, and you will be wise. The contempt of worldly things is a sober madness, and the desire of earthly things a drunken wisdom. He does not approach divine things who does not recede from human." He spoke as one experienced: for by the flight of honors he had ascended to union with God, and by the reproaches and contempts of men, as if by steps, he had come to an intimate familiarity with Christ Jesus: and this he fostered not by prayer only and assiduous contemplation, but also kindled it by the ardor of external exercise, as occasion offered itself; whether another's necessity was to be relieved, and some work of mercy to be performed, the love of the cross was present, always ready to inflict some penalty on his body.

[99] If by rumor or by the sadder sound of the bells the death of anyone in the city was indicated, and humble services, he ran at once to the mournful house and promptly washed the corpses, composed them on biers, carried them on his shoulders to burial, in short fulfilled all the sad ministries, as one of the herd of corpse-washers and undertakers, whom from the refuse of the commons the hope of a little gain and the gain necessary for passing life compels to it: with brooms also he cleaned those houses and vestibules and the parts of the roads lying before them. And because it frequently happened, that by acquaintances and friends, ill-bearing so great an abjection in a noble man, he was drawn away by prayers from this vileness of offices, he humbly besought, by the love of Jesus Christ, that they would not envy him these emoluments, the prices of the eternal kingdom, and truly the fruits of charity.

[100] Amid which occupations and labors of the hands flashed the sparks of divine ardor, which he mingles with pious sighs. frequent that is, sighs, fervid conversations with God, from which he could not, even from himself, obtain that he abstain; and there was heard thereupon from his mouth this refrain: "May Jesus Christ alone live in the hearts of all the living." In which kind of exercise and of struggle against the world and themselves John and Francis were engaged for two years, the beginning being drawn from that day on which they began openly to beg…

NOTES.

CHAPTER VIII.

His fervent love toward Christ, the choice of some disciples, and their hard probation.

[101] The heart of Columbinus blazed with the ardor of that fire which the Lord Jesus had come to send upon the earth, The blessed Man, blazing with the love of Christ nor could it now be contained within the straits of a small breast; but, eager to go forth, wherever a door was given, through all his members it cast forth flames… Wherever his going or his standing had been, the roads, crossroads, temples resounded with these voices: "May Jesus Christ live," or "May Jesus Christ be praised forever"; and with these were consonant his works, no less fervid, and even more frequent: for always earnestly devoted to amplifying the glory of God, and to the utility of his neighbors, he gave all his time partly to prayers, partly to sacred discourses, partly to helping bodies and souls with every aid; and in these many grievous things were everywhere offered and harsh to endure, which yet he himself with incredible alacrity overcame; nay even he superadded other things, by which the penalty might become more intense, or the torment more lasting, voluntarily undertaken.

[102] by public sermons, and private admonitions But the chief fruit was gathered from his frequent discourses, held publicly and privately: for they were ardent and always on those subjects which most availed to move minds, and were seasoned again and again with the sharp salt of reproofs, by which both the stupor of the languishing breasts might be shaken off, and the grief of the crimes committed excited. He was much occupied in exaggerating the gravity of the divine offense, and never did not sweat in explaining the atrocity of the penalties due to them.

[103] For the rest, he aptly and skillfully proposed remedies for the amendment of life congruous to every state and condition of his hearers: he converts many sinners, but concerning the nobles like himself, earnestly given to the gains of merchandise, his chief zeal and care was that they might be led to the contempt of riches; concerning their vanity, perils, and inconveniences; concerning the brevity of life granted for the use of transient goods, concerning eternal felicity, concerning the rewards of the heavenly kingdom, prepared for the despisers of wealth, he discoursed with so great vehemence of spirit, that most, kindled with the desire of Evangelical perfection, bade farewell to the world and their faculties; many, the license of their looser life being amended, composed themselves and their families to the norm of Christian discipline; very many were recalled from the filth of crimes to better fruit and the penitence of their errors.

[104] And thus, if not the destruction (for who would have hoped this in a most ample city), certainly a bridle cast upon the wandering wickedness, and leads some to Evangelical perfection, and the city marveled, not without immense gladness, that, the filth being cast out which for the great part had corrupted its manners, it had migrated from an uncultivated and sordid state into a fair and neat one. But how pleasing to the heavenly ones, and how joyful to Columbinus, did that fall out? In this so great abundance of harvest a precious little handful of a few was found, to whom that whole horror of life and contempt of the world so smiled, that they even resolved to embrace it, and, all things which they had being left, Columbinus as leader and instructor, to follow Christ, and under the same yoke of the cross to hasten with him to the heavenly kingdoms. In this, as in the dawn, the solar rays of the nascent day began to shine, which was followed by the sun of the religious Order, shining in the heaven of the Church.

[105] From the ancient and illustrious family of the Piccolomini, as from a fruitful tree, and among others from the Piccolomini family there went on even then to come forth splendid fruits of the golden branches, great souls, by which the ancestral honors are augmented with new ornaments. Of these Siena at that time numbered and cherished several survivors, with whom our institute has no business, we who describe not the history of the family, but the transition of the men from their family and kinship to new names and new kinsmen.

[106] These were the germs of the primitive vine, which the heavenly Husbandman had destined to plant in his field, Bartholomew the father Bartholomew ^a the parent, Bindus ^b and Alphonsus ^c, his twin offspring, who carried the torch and went before by example the not few others, to whom the imitation of these was of more worth than the invitements and conveniences of riches and honors, in which the paternal house abounded, and which the virtue of ancestors surviving in the descendants and their merits toward the commonwealth persuaded to hope from their country; for in it Bartholomew, having already discharged illustrious offices, had gathered the greatest reputation of prudence and authority among the citizens, and had opened the way to his two sons, whom nature had furnished with eminent endowments, education with the best manners, for the same.

[107] But he, salutarily wounded by the darts of Columbinus's ardent discourses, with his two sons yielded to the calling grace, and resolved to leave earthly things, which before with a most greedy thought he licked; which deliberation of counsel when he had opened to his two far dearest sons, he had no need of any other more prolix exhortation to allure them: for, moved at the unexpected news, Bindus and Alphonsus testified that wherever their father went, they would promptly follow, nor would suffer by any reason that he alone should betake himself to the safe standards of Christ, and leave his sons among the stormy waves of the world, that they too had courage to escape, and to place on their shoulders the cross which he took up; that he should not doubt that one and the same was the vocation of the three, whose will of salvation from the Lord is one; to be proved not so much by delay of time as by the goodness of the cause; that counsels are not to be reckoned unripe which are sent from heaven, and invite to hastening; that slow endeavors are not known to the grace of the Holy Spirit; that therefore they asked, that he who is a parent in flesh would deign to be a parent also in spirit, and would place them, companions with himself, before Columbinus, to be regenerated to Christ with their father.

[108] he adds them to his institute, At which answer, the more joyful, the less hoped for, wondrously glad Bartholomew, thanks being rendered to God for the doubled benefit, and a few words being added to commend constancy, leads both to Columbinus, and earnestly prays that he be not reluctant to receive the three heads devoted to heaven into the number of his fellows and brothers. He assents willingly and, mindful of the divine counsel: "Go," he said, "sell all that you have, and give to the poor: come, and follow Christ."

[109] who, his faculties being abdicated, Bartholomew complied, and distributed all his faculties into three parts; the first was distributed to the poor; the second passed into the dowry of needy girls, some to be given in marriage, some to be enrolled among the nuns according to each one's pleasure; the third, that he might divide it among his kinsmen, for just causes prudent men advised. To his two sons nothing was left, because they chose the Lord for their inheritance, to whom they offered themselves and all their things spontaneously and with willing mind, victims on the altar of the cross: and the holocaust of three hosts was perfected into an odor of sweetness.

[110] and his dress being changed, And that no discrepancy might appear in the habit, of whom there was one will of putting on Christ, all three laid aside their secular garments, and substituted for them a little tunic and a rude little mantle; but their heads, legs, and feet they left altogether uncovered. Their food scanty and vile, nor sought except by begging: their bed the bare ground: their delights penance, labor, prayer. Daily through the squares of the city and the open ways they cried out: "May Jesus Christ live; may Jesus Christ be praised forever."

[111] the city wondering, they constantly persevered in the arduous kind of life. Who could explain by speaking what were the feelings of the citizens, what the conversations, what the amazement, whether upon the father, a little before honored among the chief men, they came, ragged, foul; or whether they heard the sons, in the very flower of youth, all pomp of garments and ornament being cast off, half-naked going about the city, asking alms, praising with pious vociferation the name of the Lord? Nor was this ardent flame of love, like one which seizes straw or hay, and quickly is fed upon, of a few days or of months; but to the auspicious beginnings there corresponded most fortunate progress and issues: for all three [d] held their constancy in what they had begun, and honored a life most holily led with a like end, so that antiquity esteemed them worthy of the appellation and honor of the Blessed [e]…

[112] Roused by their example Wherefore Columbinus has whereof to rejoice for himself, and to congratulate his Piccolomini, whom, victors over the three most foul enemies of the human race, he beheld running in the stadium of Evangelical perfection; and his gladness was augmented not moderately, when the number too was augmented by the accession of others, whom their example and the odor of holiness drew to the same institute of life, though most harsh and exceedingly repugnant to sense and flesh. The chief among these are named Spinellus Boninsegni [f], who by the austerity of his life, the gift of prayer, humility, and the splendor of the other virtues illustrated the illustriousness of his birth: concerning whom they thought they had said much, who by a brief eulogy called him the heir of Columbinus's sanctity.

[113] Not long after there joined itself a noble triad of Florentines, then dwelling at Siena. some others To whom, attentive to the daily deeds and words of the recent athletes, a heavenly light shone, and kindled the desire of laudable imitation, so that, by their example, their faculties which they possessed being despised, and their family estate distributed to the poor, joined to the nascent company, they descended alertly into the same hazard of the new soldiery. Their names, written in the book of life, and inserted in the catalogue of the blessed of Etruria, are: Antony ^g of the Ubaldini family, surnamed from Mingello, because in that region the Ubaldini family possessed some towns and castles, and ruled with command; Peter Belfredelli [h], and Romulus de Nobilibus ⁱ, who all three under Columbinus's discipline had such progress that they attained the goal of sanctity, and were as saints, living and dead, everywhere by all believed.

[114] These thereupon others followed, whose names all to relate here is a long and by no means necessary labor. joined themselves to the same institute, This is certain, that in the last two years of his life he numbered nearly seventy, and far more were to be numbered, if he had admitted those coming to him indifferently and without choice, or had judged it fair to prove the admitted with milder experiments than that severe institute suffered: for he was wont to say, that it was better, at the sight of the turbid and swelling sea, to keep the shore, than to draw back from the very navigation, and again return to the mainland of the secular life from weariness and lassitude…

[115] His simple and fervent sermons to the people were accompanied by the devices of public mortifications, whose virtue, the mockeries of the people being tolerated, by which both the constancy of the novices was proved, and occasion was given to the multitude to flow to the ludicrous spectacles, that amid them it might learn serious things, and, the trumpet of divine praise sounding in their ears, their minds might be struck, whose eyes curiosity had drawn to behold: for Columbinus, that his candidates might the more dearly buy the precious pearl of the fellowship of those already admitted, ordered them now indeed to mount an ass, and, their face turned toward the beast's tail, and their forehead bound with branches of leafy olive in the manner of a crown, he led them for a laughingstock through the city, and meanwhile he himself and the other fellows following behind, likewise carrying olive branches in their palms, with strained voice cried out: "May Jesus Christ live, live: may Jesus Christ be praised forever."

[116] At other times he commanded them, stripped of their garments, save where modesty forbade to be stripped, and by public mortifications to go about the squares and streets, and to be unloaded with the wagon-loads of curses and revilings by the fellows accompanying them, as upon heads infamous and worthy of the gallows. Sometimes even, their hands bound behind their backs with ropes and a noose wrapped about their throats, one was led as a robber to be dashed at the gibbet, and there were heard meanwhile the mournful voices of the fellows entreating the crowds, that for the wretched sinner and most wicked of mortals they would ask the Lord, and recite the Lord's Prayer with the angelic salutation, that he might obtain mercy and be made safe.

[117] But this hard bread was not given to all without distinction;

and by other experiments but to those bringing a strong stomach and manly vigor of a more ardent purpose to the new and laborious institute. Regard was had of the weaker, as the law of prudence and charity prescribed. Yet no one was initiated without the bitter draught of the cup, and he who, his palate being indignant, had refused to drink, professed himself degenerate, and unworthy of that fellowship. Further, all had to begin from this experiment, which to the more fervent seemed a light and sweet rudiment, to the rest tolerable and to be readily admitted.

[118] the blessed Master proved them. In the open field an image of the most holy Virgin stood out, whether sculptured or painted? on a wall or a column? Before it was set the candidate, soon to become a novice, and, his more honorable garments being cast off, he was clad in worn and rude tunic and little mantle. The fellows stood around, their heads crowned with little olive branches, of whom two went before with the devout hymn; all the rest with consonant voices filled the choir, and with simple harmony and cheerful concert the whole neighborhood resounded. Thus the wise architect Columbinus hewed the first stones, and prepared them for the edifice to be erected a little later.

NOTES.

CHAPTER IX.

The notable conversion of two young men, and their constant fervor.

[119] The son of Nicholas de Nardusa ^a, a Sienese patrician (why did the ancients not express the name worthy of eternal memory? A noble youth,) of the age of twenty years, adorned with the laurel of jurisprudence, the flower of his youth snatched from secular honors, withdrawn from the hope of his parents and the expectation of his friends [b], dedicated to the servitude of Christ: for since he was a frequent hearer of Columbinus's sermons and an assiduous spectator of his deeds, he felt himself again and again affected to those things; then, the desire growing, so to be moved, that he did not rest until he was enrolled in the new soldiery by its Leader, and with the same arms as he descended into the arena to fight against the world.

[120] But his inauguration had to be bought at the same price as by others before him: desiring to be enrolled among Columbinus's disciples, for Columbinus, being asked about the admission, and in the prayers and the disposition of the youth recognizing the instinct of God calling, answered the suppliant: "If you truly desire to be of our company, suffer your garments to be drawn from you, and naked to be led to the fountain of the Campo." At which thunder the undaunted youth answered: "Be it in your power, Father, to deal with me as with a dead man, and to treat me as a corpse. Behold me most ready, and prepared for your commands." At which answer the Father was wondrously delighted, and held it enough to have explored his will, and to have afforded a handle of merit to the one asking.

[121] For the rest, clad in his own garments, he led him to the square of the Campo, he is proved by the accustomed experiment, and there, on the knee, the blessed Virgin being adored, they proceeded to the fountain flowing not far off, where he was first unshod by the fellows at John's command; then, led back to the sacred image, the splendid and elegant garment being cast off, he is clad in a dark and worn habit, and with it our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle admonishes. Meanwhile with what limpid joys the breasts of the fellows were suffused, the tears abundantly bedewing their faces testified; but Columbinus, notably bathed with them above all, indulged the alacrity of his spirit, and one of the fellows, whose name was Boccia, being invited to sing, he loosed his mouth into his solemn song, whose beginning is: "Beloved Jesus Christ, who him that loves you," etc.

[122] Thence, when the chief man was led to the temple, there ran to the spectacle from every side crowds of every sex and condition, and he is suffused with great shame, and there was a various murmur among them, some laughing at the order of the band and pomp, some amazed that a youth of the primary nobility, in the eyes of his parents and kinsmen, the course of human felicity broken off, had fore-condemned himself to that misery, as they thought. But he, in the whole tract of that journey and the concourse of the people, however his mind was raised to heaven, confessed himself thereafter suffused with so great shame and blushing, that, compared with the bitterness of death, that could seem more tolerable.

[123] But, such is the clemency of the Lord, according to the greatness of the grief a consolation gladdened his soul: to whom God repays a sweet consolation, for on the following night so copious a sweetness of heavenly dew glided into his breast, that scarcely was mortal infirmity believed equal to receiving it. Nor was there room left for sleep, because divine love had occupied his whole soul, and the inmost enjoyment of the caressing grace. And this was the beginning of a good to remain in the future: for it brought with it the sublime gift of contemplation, and so advanced the youth, that it made him a partaker of an open revelation of hidden secrets.

[124] and infused so great abundance of grace, Further, not inferior to this loftiness was the ardor of will by which he was borne toward God, and toward men for God's sake, and this he thought he could not conceal even in silence; but frequently in the very streets of the city through which his going was, boiling within, he did not fear to cry out to the idle multitude: "Ah, wretched sinners, would that you knew and understood what I know and understand! How cautiously, how solicitously would you redeem this time happy for you! Believe me, narrating things heard from Christ: If you do penance for your sins, and with faith invoke the holy name of the Lord, not only will you obtain pardon, but besides so great an abundance of grace, that it will bring admiration to those weighing it.

[125] that he exhorted all to cry out to Christ, Nay rather, carried away by the impulse of fervor, he did not blush to exhort even his own master John and the fellows, that they would go on to cry out to Jesus Christ; that the time was at hand in which God through them would bestow great mercy on sinners; that it was commanded him by Christ Jesus, to invite the nations to penance and the confession of their crimes, and not to cease to recall his name into memory; that they would prove by the effect, if they obeyed, how illustriously and how abundantly the divine goodness would compensate their obedience.

[126] It happened once, and, being asked by the abbess of St. Abundius, that, having set out together with Columbinus to the convent of St. Abundius, he candidly opened to its superioress, a woman of noted virtue, what he had hitherto concealed from all mortals, namely that he had learned by a revelation of the lord Jesus, that his conversion was to be ascribed to the prayers of the nuns, and that these, if they persevere to offer them to the supreme Godhead for sinners, would not be in vain, inasmuch as of virgins who to his divine sight were acceptable; and he added many other things, which were attentively and pleasantly received by the superioress, admiring the ardor of the speaker, and applauding to herself in her own bosom over the fortunate lot of the Master and the disciple.

[127] that he should prepare himself to undergo a wondrous ignominy, But the piously curious woman asked him: "Since I understand not obscurely from your discourse that you blaze with the love of Jesus Christ, tell me, pray, what would you dare or do for him?" To whom the youth: "Whatever is arduous or harsh in the world. Try me, and command whatever you please." Then she: "Descend into the nearby cellar, and strip yourself, and, naked, walking about the city, cry out: 'May Jesus Christ live.'" Said and done; forthwith he descends, puts off his garments, and covered by obedience alone was going about Siena, had not John, meeting him on the very threshold, at the request of her who had feigned the command, forbidden him to go further, and ordered him to clothe himself again.

[128] Columbinus himself admiring the fervor of the disciple. Both were amazed at his heroic fortitude, and compared the generosity of his mind with the promptitude of Isaac. Columbinus indeed, writing once to Brother George of the family of the Preachers, then acting as churchman at Volterra, his most familiar friend: "Hence," he says, "I pray you, note, reverend father, how affluently the most benign God pours out the rivers of his mercy upon those who from the depraved ways of the world and from sins come to their senses through true penance, so that even in one day they are raised to the sublime summit of perfection, and heaped with heavenly gifts."

[129] Clear and illustrious is the conversion of the other youth, Another youth, mocking blessed John, and perhaps more wonderful in the narration. Thomas Guelfacci of Siena, as obscure in vices as he was illustrious in lineage and blood, as he had indulged his gullet and belly, held it in custom and stupid pleasure to prick indeed all religious with gibes and goads, and to expose them to the laughter of the crowd; but more licentiously to assail the servants of God, the followers of Columbinus, with taunts, and to seek matter of mockery from the vileness of their habit. But when on a certain day Columbinus was taking his way to St. Abundius with some of his own, the intemperate man did not contain himself, but followed behind, and loosed his polluted lips into jests and guffaws against them.

[130] He dissembled to hear the revilings of the croaking frog, until they came to the sign of the health-bringing wood, suddenly and in a wondrous manner which, fixed in the ground at the side of the road, was raised on high. In that place Columbinus, turned to Thomas: "I ask you," he said, "by the love of Christ, do not disdain to gratify me in a small thing." He answered that, if he conveniently could, he would gratify him.

"Bend, I beseech, your knee before that cross, and the Lord's Prayer and the angelic salutation recite once." "Nay, I am ready to recite it twice," answered Thomas; and immediately falling down, he performs his promise.

[131] Columbinus bends together, and ardently insists that the divine Godhead be propitiated to the mocker. is converted by him, Wondrous is the force of the prayer of a just man! Suddenly with great impulse a thought sent from heaven invades the breast of Thomas, and, roused from the sleep of death, restores him to life. From a light guffawer he becomes a serious disciple of Columbinus; he falls at his feet, prays pardon for his madness, with lowest prayers asks to be received as companion and servant of all; adjures that he will not thence depart except having obtained his petition. What more? The proof of his vocation was the excellence of his conversion; and by experience Columbinus had learned that such sudden changes have auspicious beginnings and happier progressions: for the most divine Spirit, their author, seems to act as surety for their admission, and sponsor of the constancy of the admitted.

[132] Therefore the lost sheep was straightway added to the little flock, and is admitted into the number of the disciples, and as in a moment he put off the old man with his acts, so also he hastened to put off the exterior man, and, like the rest, exchanged his noble garment for a neglected little vesture. And because events which are less expected are wont to strike minds more vehemently, almost the whole astonished city stood, and scarcely believed its eyes beholding that a brawny youth from the women's quarters and the camps of the cupids had migrated to the cohorts of austerity and chastity, and from a petulant reveler had been made in a moment modest, sober, continent, as if he had long been educated within religious cloisters to piety and modesty.

[133] And there were indeed not a few among the graver

Sienese, who by the salutary exhortations of his blessed Master to whom the sudden resolve, no previous consultation being entered, cast a suspicion of levity and a fear of perseverance; but Columbinus felt otherwise, and wished the novice to hope well, and promoted him to further things with the best counsels, inculcating the salutary admonition of the Apostle: "As you exhibited your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, so now exhibit your members to serve justice unto sanctification.

[134] Remember the sins which against God, your neighbor, was thus confirmed, and yourself you have committed; how prone to the pleasures of sense, how unbridled in speaking, how proud and arrogant, how gluttonous and vain you have been. Now therefore your sins with tears and penance redeem: fight the good fight, as a strenuous soldier of Christ, that God may be honored in your victory; nor doubt that, according to the greatness of your faith and desire, he will fill your soul with his goods, since he is rich in mercy. Take comfort and be strong in the might of his power: hope in him, and pray him, and he himself will direct your steps."

[135] that he might endure all injuries With which shower of most salutary exhortation Columbinus watered the new germ; but God gave the increase, and made a yield in the contest of virtue: for Thomas went about with bared head and legs, and to the wounds of his past life applied the medicine of the patience of excellent acts, especially in tolerating those things from which sense and the love of his own reputation shrank: for these he not only, when to him thinking of nothing else they were objected, bore with equanimity, but also studiously sought and of his own accord hunted, cautious lest without penalty any part of the time should ever slip by. Among his daily and serious examples of suffering this pleasant one happened, that when he was mocked by one of the Brothers set over collecting alms, he answered nothing more bitter; but with the utmost humility signified that he received the jests with fair ears and mind, he who ardently desired to be assailed even with revilings and reproaches.

[136] and patiently tolerate the stinging gibes of men. There somewhat disfigured the head of Thomas a fleshy little tumor, projecting in the manner of a larger blackish callus, which, since it was covered neither by the hair nor by the cap, at once ran into the eyes.

A layman therefore, insipidly facetious, said to him: "You had once heaped into your stomach and devoured so many livers, that they climbed into your head, and made you liverish [c]." Then he, mindful of the mockeries and petulance with which he had once provoked the servants of God: "Now indeed," he said, "yours it is to speak and prate; but mine to be silent, and patiently to hear and be still. Would that I might one day become an imitator of Christ not feigned, and be frequently exercised and mocked, and thus my old scurrility be chastised by the frequent mockeries of others." Which appetite of mortification and rigor of mind nowhere in the course of his life languished, and only by a most holy death could grow slack.

NOTES.

CHAPTER X.

The Sienese convent of the Friars Preachers reduced by the work of blessed John Columbinus to a stricter observance of poverty and discipline.

[137] There had come to Siena a pair of noble Pisans, legates from their commonwealth. Two noble Pisans These a desire had seized of seeing and addressing Columbinus, whose fame of virtue and sanctity had long grown frequent through Etruria. They came to a conversation with this fruit, that they augmented the esteem and reverence of the interviewers, because they saw something more excellent and more divine present, than, from others' discourses, they had heard when absent.

[138] And although they were not ignorant that they would with difficulty obtain from him that he should come to a banquet and refresh the guests with his presence and discourse; nevertheless, alleging spiritual utility to their most honorable desire, they invite blessed John to dinner, nay even the example of Christ the Lord, suffering himself to be invited to the nuptials of Cana, skillfully objecting, they at last prevailed, and extorted a promise for the appointed day: which when it dawned, there were brought to the hospitable palace himself and two fellows, namely Francis Vincent, and Cecchus, an excellent lute-player and musician, skilled beyond few in joining sacred songs to the strings. They were received most courteously, and, at the set hour, being asked to recline at the table, a blessing being premised, they reclined, and, laying aside for a while, in favor of their hosts, their severity, rendered the foods set before them sweeter by the savor of their words. The dinner was followed by the concert of Cecchus, and the harmony tempered by the sound of the strings, a salubrious and pleasing food for the banqueters, opportune for lifting their minds to God.

[139] After this, by common consent, they went for recreation to the convent of the Friars Preachers, who on that occasion goes to the Sienese convent of the Dominicans, commonly called Camporegio, whither the pleasantness of the place and religion invited. And to the others indeed it was a pleasure to survey the garden and the cells and workshops of the dwelling; but to Columbinus with his fellows to sing the praises of the Lord, and, with cheerful voice and the modulated sound of the lyre, to console themselves with a choir, and to be inflamed to divine love. At this the household, roused, ran up, were delighted, wondered; and these were in number twelve followers of the Dominican institute, a great part cultivated with good disciplines, not ignoble in the praise of preaching or of lecturing in the schools.

[140] Nor yet did the esteem and authority of their learning deter the Man of God, where with fervid and simple words but, an end being put to the music, he made a beginning of a discourse, and discoursed more loftily of the supreme truth, from which, as he himself said, a watering vein of solid gladness rains down, and inundates the minds thinking of it, and waters the tongues speaking of it. And these things were referred to this, that it might be established that all created things are only a shadow of the truth and rather to be compared to a lie, and therefore that those are vehemently deceived and driven about by the wind of vanity who by no means fix the feet of their affections in the firmament of the first truth: which while he uttered with the ardor and impulse which is proper to holy preachers, the wisdom and eloquence which surpassed the genius of the noble Layman, the religious breasts of the hearers were kindled with divine love, and gave signs of inmost compunction by sighs and groans.

[141] he so moves a learned theologian of that Order One of them, Christopher Blasius ^a by name, whom he numbered among the first of the house, showed by deed that he sighed not without cause, or transacted his affair perfunctorily: for straightway he asks Columbinus to ascend to the upper story and to enter his chamber, not to be reluctant. There, all his furniture being displayed, "Father," he said, "through me and my superiors the right has been made to you to dispose of this at your arbitration, whether you prefer to distribute it to the poor, or to transfer it to other uses: let for me henceforth, for all riches, be that supreme truth of which you spoke, to which I have resolved to cleave, esteeming as nothing the rest, which are subject to vanity and are mere vanity."

[142] that he embraced a stricter poverty, Columbinus complies with the most honorable petition, and, having entered the cell, permits not only the things which served for adornment, but also those which served for necessity, to be plundered by the fervor of a spirit eager to cast them off as superfluous. And so the books, the linen and woolen cloths, the seats, vessels, images, and all the other apparatus were carried out thence, and on the following day distributed to the poor; only so much straw being left as was enough for lying down, lest his limbs and bones be dashed against the pavement.

[143] and did not blush to perform abject offices, On the following two days, a wallet placed on his shoulders, like one of the lay brothers, he did not blush to beg from door to door, a man known in the whole city and held in honor; and that not so much with the intent of collecting alms, as of depressing himself and exposing himself openly to mockery in imitation of Columbinus: which also was the cause that he went out into a suburban field, which by antonomasia the crowd called the Abbey [b], with an ass, and there at the little house of a certain brother Peter loaded it with dung, and carried it back into the city: and that he might more brightly act the muleteer, a basket likewise filled with the same he lifted on his shoulders, and through the crowded multitude, whither he wished, carried it.

[144] the whole city wondering at the notable humility of a most well-known man. It seems akin to a prodigy, that a veteran theologian, nourished within the enclosures of religion, illustrious in doctrine, mature in judgment, should deliver himself to be imbued with the new precepts of a secular Layman; should despoil himself of things necessary for an honorable life; embrace the rigor of penance; descend to the most abject offices of mortification, which he had once judged not to befit the condition of his state even in the novitiate of his Order. But in this too God willed Columbinus to be like his Apostles, that through the foolishness of preaching he might convert the wise, and so instruct them, that they should deem it the greatest wisdom to be held and mocked as fools for the love of Christ.

[145] Other brothers of the same convent Columbinus was not ignorant that the discourse he had held had been fruitful likewise to the other brothers of the same monastery, and therefore, that the sparks of salutary thoughts divinely kindled might be fostered, he hastened to return thither together with his companion Ambrose, that by conversation, which he perceived was gladly received, as by frequent breath, he might rouse the fire. The fruit indeed of this familiarity was a change of manners, and a certain conformation to the pristine discipline of the rule, the use of haircloth, and the renewed custom of fasting, poverty restored to its brightness: for some abdicated themselves of things granted for a somewhat milder life, nor endured to retain them any longer in their chambers; to cut short their fringed garments, to bind up the flapping ones, to love solitude and silence, to be delighted with prayer and mortification: by which and other similar things that ancient sanctity of the nascent Order seemed to reflourish, and the splendor of its primitive virtue to revive.

[146] Further, one voice of all was, that more of light was drawn in the school of love, with Columbinus as teacher and master, followed the example of this theologian, than from the chairs of the philosophers and theologians before this worn out; nay rather, if they compared the past days and months there spent with the recent ones, those seemed to them dark with the shadows of ignorance; these serene and splendid with the brightness of wisdom, which that new star shed abroad, poured over from a higher sun.

[147] But a certain one of this number, wise beyond measure in his own eyes, and among them a grave man who had disapproved the unwonted fervor, so far did not approve exercises of such unwonted fervor and piety, that he condemned some as of levity, some of absurdity, saying that they were like the little flame of straw, whose duration is brief and light impure. But, as St. Gregory speaks of holy Thomas the apostle, it was done by divine dispensation that he should doubt, and that by his doubt the incredulity of the rest should be healed; so by divine permission it was done, that the grave man should esteem as nothing things to be valued at a price, that the more clearly the force of grace, reducing untamed heads under the yoke of the dominating love, [c] might appear, and the fight happier, and the victory more glorious.

[148] For when he sometimes heard more curiously Columbinus, frequently coming thither and confirming men by his words in the purpose of a holier life, at last he yielded to blessed John's pious admonitions; he too was struck by the arrows of the Mighty One, sent forth from the mouth of the Servant of the Lord: he willingly yielded, not so much to the eloquence or doctrine of the speaker, as to the virtue of the spirit turning his tongue on this side, and opening his heart on that to understand that the imitations of notable saints are not to be equaled to trifles, which lead to the summit of Evangelical perfection and to the sublime rewards of the heavenly kingdom.

[149] The city of Siena therefore deserved to have in its bosom an entire company of notable cenobites, which change of manners is wont to be difficult of obtainment. as a wedge of angels, brought over by the work of Columbinus from the inveterate custom of a sweeter life to the rigor of a more severe one; how laborious and wonderful this is, can be established to those who know how great a mass it is for religious men, exceedingly learned, and long accustomed to a milder institute, to subject their wisdom to the counsels of a single unlettered secular man, to submit their wills, to turn aside from a way strewn with the roses of conveniences to the harshness hedged about with the thorn-bush, and to tread it, until, the flesh being worn down, the spirit may breathe fully into liberty in the light of the mercies of the Lord, which alone makes the yoke sweet and the burden light.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XI.

The exile decreed against blessed John by the Sienese magistracy, the divine vengeance for it, the sudden revocation of the unjust expulsion, and the friendly invitation to return.

and the whole world is his country: therefore Columbinus could not be an exile: he could suffer persecution and be driven from Siena, that it might be lawful to glory with the Apostle: "We suffer persecution, but we are not forsaken"; because, namely, God is with him and for him in tribulation; which he also willed to declare by a prodigy, that he might show himself the avenger of the injuries which the ungrateful country did not fear to inflict, in a blind tumult, upon innocent heads. For when others upon others daily strove to be enrolled in the recent society, first there arose the little rumors of the muttering crowd, then the indignations of kinsmen and the complaints of friends ill-bearing that from the inmost bosom of the nobility youths of the best hope and men destined for the public governance should be torn away, and coalesce into a society which consisted wholly of horror and misery, and trained its foster-sons to insane vociferations.

[151] as a disturber of the commonwealth, Hatreds thence grew among very many, as against pernicious and turbulent members of the commonwealth, which, roused by the lust of innovating, gradually might affect the whole body, and, unless God restrain, ruin it. And when the Stygian old trickster, most ill-bearing the new plant to grow up to his own harm, applied torches to hearts already kindled with anger, and sharpened tongues prone to curses, by the frequent gnashing of complaints the ears of the magistracy were roughened, and their care was turned to applying a remedy to the creeping evil.

[152] exile is decreed by the Sienese senate, A day therefore for consultation was appointed, and to the twelve senators ^a who then presided over the commonwealth, announced: a meeting being held among themselves, it was deliberated in common, that the axe should be applied to the root of the tree, and that John, as the architect of the machine, with Francis Vincent, his chief companion and helper, should be sent far from the city into exile: for thus, the two columns tottering, the whole edifice would fall, and its peace and tranquillity would return to the city; and lest any intercession should make delay to the execution, a messenger was sent with precipitate legation to the innocent accused, neither called into judgment, nor heard, who should decree their departure from the city and the whole state of the commonwealth, in the name and by the command of the senate, and that no more space for going away be granted than what a candle burning before the gate of the city should designate by its duration: if they do otherwise, let it be the crime of lese-majesty, to be expiated by capital penalty.

[153] To have heard the thunderbolt of the deadly sentence and to have girded themselves for the journey was the same to those who were pilgrims upon earth, by whose decree the Blessed one at once complies; always dwelling in mind in heaven. The antidote of the blow drawn from the Evangelical box, the dust being shaken from their feet, they went rejoicing from the sight of the city, since they were held worthy to suffer contumely for justice and the name of Jesus; poverty ministered their viaticum, hope in the Lord their staff, joy in the Holy Spirit their company, and in their lassitude and the inconveniences of the roads their refreshment holy conversations, and the recollection of the Lord's promise: "Blessed shall you be, when men shall curse you and persecute you." A great part of the journey prayer claimed for itself, its own also was given to hymnody and pious little songs, with which they praised the Godhead, and consoled themselves; and there were, besides the two expelled, five and twenty others, to whom it was of more worth, with their beloved fellows, to leave their soil, than in their country, by the corruption of an iniquitous judgment hateful to the heavenly ones, to remain.

[154] Nor indeed were they mistaken in their opinion, fearing greatly the vengeance which they presaged from heaven: but God the injury inflicted on his Servant for the most just judge, indignant against the wicked deed, and God the protector of innocence, when he could overwhelm by himself and by his ministering angels the guilty of the crime, preferred to use the compliance of the elements, that they might bring in sicknesses, and, as mute executioners, produce clamors and slaughters in vengeance of the iniquitous: for from the departure of Columbinus and his companions the sun was overspread with darkness, the heaven bellowed with thunders, the air roared with clouds and tempests, flashed with lightnings, dissolved into globes of waters mixed with hail, so that you would say the age of the celebrated cataclysm had returned, and you would fear again that the earth was being swallowed by floods.

[155] But these portents of terrors were the beginnings of griefs: avenged by such manifest signs, for cohorts of diseases followed and lay heavy upon the bodies of very many, and frequent deaths of every condition of citizens filled the city with squalor and mourning, so that no part of the city, no private house remained now empty of weeping and funeral wailing: which, though late and compelled and terrified by disasters, began to grow wise, and to notice the heavenly wrath intent upon it, and seriously to deliberate about averting it.

[156] The rectors themselves therefore, upon whom, as of the evils as authors, so that the Senate honorably invited him to return, the dire and popular execrations were rolling down, began to confess the fault and to accuse themselves, openly to detest the penalty of the rash proscription, and to decree in common concerning his honorable recall. Vexation gave understanding, and those who by black pebbles [b] had alleged the public utility, learned by their own harm that it is a perilous and horrible thing to touch the anointed of the Lord, and to rage against the undeserving. Led therefore by penitence, certain citizens being selected from their number, they prepare a legation and command that as quickly as possible they meet the exiles, dwelling at Arezzo in Etruria, that in the name of the senate they beg pardon for the injury, that they again and again entreat them to return to Siena, and, if they do not refuse, honorably lead them back with them.

[157] The messengers did as commanded, and were heard with the utmost benignity by Columbinus; whom he asserts is to be deferred a while, but that they should return at that time, he said, was by no means permitted, on account of business of great weight, which needed his presence and work at Arezzo; let them meanwhile carry to his beloved country, which he from afar entreats a blessing upon from the Lord, the blessing which not long after he would bring in person; let them hope well of the divine mercy, now propitiated to the contrite of heart, and let them not doubt that the sword of vengeance is laid away in its sheath.

[158] The legates departed, full of gladness and hope from the address and promise of the Man of God, and meanwhile promises that tranquillity is to be restored to the Sienese. and by their coming and good news wondrously cheered the city, overwhelmed with sadness and grief, which afterward was augmented not moderately, when it experienced the truth of the prediction and the fruit from the blessing transmitted: for in a short time tranquillity of air and serenity of heaven returned, and all that storm subsided, whence ruin and the destruction of the citizens was feared [c]; and this indulgence was a by no means obscure token of the appeased Godhead, and of a singular benevolence toward Columbinus, by whose prayers that dust, which he had shaken from his feet going out of the city, about to be an accuser of the impiety of those expelling him in the common judgment of the world, the scene being changed, is to be produced as a witness of the penitence performed and of the merited reconciliation and pardon.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XII.

His stay in the city of Arezzo, the prodigious healing of one of his companions, and other things done there.

The persecution of the faithful which began at Jerusalem from the slaying of holy Stephen, and the dispersion through the world, Blessed John, having set out for Arezzo, turned to an occasion of sowing the Evangelical doctrine, and of propagating the name of Christ far and wide. For the best God knows how to draw good out of evil, and to fight against calumniators not only by power, but also by clemency, whether he wishes to repay them good for evil, or resolves to turn their wickedness to the utility of others. There is no leisure to wander further through the ancient examples with which sacred history abounds; at hand is the truly most abundant fruit of Arezzo and the neighboring cities, which from that ejection at Siena the divine providence set before the diligent reapers to be gathered. For Columbinus, having gained in that place a field most fit for receiving the heavenly seed, set about cultivating the minds of the citizens both by public and by private discourses, among whom he did not hesitate to blow the silver trumpet of his tongue, and to proclaim more freely, "May Jesus Christ live," and to distribute his fellows through the various squares and crossroads of the city for the same office.

[160] he converts many sinners there, The inhabitants of the region, astonished by the novelty and clamors before this unheard, were first roused from the sleep of madness, opened their eyes overspread with the darkness of earthly things, were raised to the knowledge of eternal things, stirred to the purposes of a better life. To Columbinus's sermons ran a frequent crowd, and against the inveterate diseases of vices willingly admitted a remedy from the skilled Physician. War was declared against the enemies of souls, resistance was made to depraved customs, the use of the Sacraments, long intermitted, was recalled into frequency, friendships were reconciled, restitutions were made, the whole city was renewed.

[161] And when through the surrounding towns and municipalities the fame of these most excellent things spread, who from everywhere flowed to his exhortations. there were made great concourses to him to hear and consult him, and they returned to their homes striking their breasts: and there was one voice of all, that the Lord had visited his people, and that Columbinus was not so much driven from Siena, as sent thither divinely, like a star dispersing by its brightness the darkness of errors, and bringing health to the multitude of the languishing. The fame of a miracle augmented the esteem and reverence, which could neither be concealed by its doer, nor be unknown to the people, nor ought to be passed over in this place.

[162] Vannus of Monticello ^a by name, one of Columbinus's followers, A certain disciple of blessed John, falling sick, whom he had left at Siena in the little lodging not far distant from the convent of St. Abundius, as we mentioned above, fell into a grievous disease, and, compelled to lie down, reputed no medicine fit for relieving his sickness, except the single sight and embrace of his beloved Father. And the fellows indeed with all charity and support were at hand; but no solace or service could heal the anguish of his mind, arisen from a vehement desire of seeing Columbinus: nor did the sick man dissemble the desire which he cooked in his mind, preposterous in the judgment of others, most opportune in his own vow.

[163] Therefore he pressed with lowest prayers, that in some way he might be led or drawn to Arezzo: and desiring to die or recover in the presence of his Master, this last thing he begged of his most loving brothers, that his spirit, if that were his last sickness, he might send forth in his Father's hands; or if he were to survive, that at his blessing he might recover. What should the fellows here do? Should they indulge the vast and importunate petition? But the journey is long and arduous, the carrying dangerous to one with fever; for this money was needed, whose very name alone is hateful to the rigid cultivators of poverty. But indeed ingenious charity found a means without carriages and beasts placidly and conveniently to convey the sick burden, and to redeem the expenses of another by their own labor.

[164] They prepare a little bed, not unlike a bier for carrying out funerals, he is carried to Arezzo by his fellows, and in it they compose Vannus, and, placed on their shoulders, by the gate which leads to Arezzo they resolve to carry him out, in the laborious ministry they succeed one another in turns, the whole of that journey the cheerful bearers traverse, until, having entered the city, they ask the citizens they meet about Columbinus's lodging, from whom being instructed, to find that indeed was easy: but to approach Columbinus at once, difficult: for he was in the adjoining temple engaged with the people, nor was access to him permitted by the crowded throng. They ask meanwhile to be admitted into his chamber, and there await, until, the multitude being dismissed, he return.

[165] Meanwhile, when the little rumor of the coming of his fellows had reached the ears of the one preaching, where the Blessed one, his little mantle being placed upon him, soon heals him. he ordered it to be answered, that they should patiently bear it for a short time, the sermon being finished, he would soon be present. Thence the good Father ran to the newcomers, wearied of the journey and the carrying, and, after sweet embraces and kisses full of love, drew off the worn little mantle from his shoulders, and stretched it over the limbs of Vannus, lying on his little bed. Wonderful to say! By that touch, as by a most efficacious amulet, the fever was straightway driven off, his former soundness restored to his body, his mind filled with so great cheerfulness, that he cast himself, sound, from his bed, and immediately fell upon his knees to render thanks to God and to his Liberator…

[166] He himself with a few fellows had come to Arezzo on the day before Ash-day, on which the faithful begin the solemn fast. Turning aside, according to his custom, to the hospital; he was received with less courtesy than was fitting by one of the ministers, Solicitous about no food to be taken, who measured the condition of the guest, unknown to him, from the vileness of his habit. To him about to sup, and now reclining at the table, though exceedingly wearied, and shaken by the vexation of the journey and the cold, he sets a single little morsel of beef, softened with vinegar, and at a time when the whole people indulges in feasting and merriment, to those few pilgrims, worthy of nectar, and vehemently needing refreshment, the avaricious and inhuman hand dispenses an exiguous ration of insipid and unhealthful food. Which unworthiness of inhospitality being seen, one of the fellows: "Father," he said, "that meat is noxious to those ill-affected in the stomach."

[167] [and, discoursing the whole night of divine things, renders his fellows forgetful of hunger,] Then Columbinus, solicitous about no food, setting about to speak of the excellence and efficacy of divine love, shows that the true and solid food of souls and delights are placed in it: and although the roaring belly does not gladly hear words, yet the mind of the banqueters, drawn away by the sweetness of the discourse from the thought of victuals, was fed with a better banquet, and, forgetful of the necessity of eating, persevered to taste the more relishing viands held out by the speaker, until the sun illuminating the lands admonished that the hour of rising was at hand, and of going to the sacred shrine, where, by the religious rite, the foreheads of the faithful are sprinkled with ashes to renew the memory of death…

[168] and at another time illumines the chamber with a light arisen from his breast. At another time in the Arezzo journey, turning aside to a hospital near the convent of the Hermit friars, he was very benignly received. But when, late at night, wearied by the labor of the journey, about to take rest he mounted the little bed, his tunic being parted with his hands, from his breast a great light suddenly radiated, which, poured through the whole dormitory, seemed to equal the solar rays. The crowd of those lying there being awakened, cast their eyes upon the new guest, whence that came forth, and wondered, saying that under a human figure they had afforded lodging to an angel, to whose dignity and merit the halls and dwellings of princes and kings were unequal [b].

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIII.

The journey to Città di Castello, the wonderful conversion of some, the reconciliation of enemies, the reduction of the nuns to a stricter poverty, and the frequent conversation with the bishop of Città di Castello.

How willingly the people of Arezzo would have retained with them that eminent handful of pilgrims and their collector John, he sets out from Arezzo to Città di Castello, whom, like an angel fallen from heaven, they looked up to and loved, was made plain by their grief and tears, with which they followed them as they departed. But, another Spirit impelling, he did not endure to be detained there any longer; and further, to those trying to retain him he set the answer of Christ: "Because to other cities also I must evangelize the kingdom of God." Arezzo therefore being left, and their desire and love for him, straight with his fellows to Città di Castello ^a he sets out upon his journey, the fame of the marvels which he had wrought following him, and anticipating his coming. All that space of the way was traversed amid divine praises and pious meditations, and rendered memorable by a notable vocation, which I subjoin.

[170] When they were nearer to Città di Castello, they opportunely fell upon a rustic plowman, in which journey a rustic, intent on drawing his furrows. Here Columbinus stops a while, and, his eyes fixed on him, thus addresses him: "Come, follow me." And he forthwith, plow-handle and oxen being left, followed the one calling… The course and end of his life was consonant with his admirable vocation; never did he look back, never sought the plow-handle again, but by the imitation of his Master and assiduous self-denial from that field ascended to the highest mountain of contemplation, on which he enjoyed both internal rays of illuminations, and not rarely external visitations of angels. If names bore any augury, the Saint at the lustral waters was called the illustrious herdsman; but if not, he himself rendered the name august, made from a herdsman a saint.

[171] Glad at the unhoped-for gain sought with no great labor, Columbinus enters the city, and a notary of the bishop of Città di Castello and to the temple of the Godhead to be adored, according to his custom, he hastens. As he went, there joined themselves from the common people several, to whom the habit and number of the newcomers, before unseen, had cast a desire of knowing what kind of men that was, and why they had come thither. There ran up besides other honorable citizens, allured by the same curiosity themselves, and among these Benedict de Pace [b], advanced in age, by profession notary of the episcopal court, who, while in the market, commonly called Tartarino, he fed his eyes and mind with that new sight, is regarded himself by Columbinus, who, his gaze fixed upon his face, thus addresses him, having imparted a salutation mixed with reproach: "Inveterate in evil days, come; bid farewell to the world, and follow Christ."

[172] O prodigy! He at once follows the one calling, associates himself with the unknown men, wonderfully cooptes him into his society, enters the greatest temple together with them, as of them suddenly made. Here, before the venerable Sacrament, on their knees prostrate, when they had prayed a while, Columbinus sets all his fellows, and especially that last pair, the living image of the Apostolic vocation, before the supreme Majesty, and, as acceptable hosts, about to immolate themselves by a voluntary sacrifice, reverently offers…

[173] all the impediments which that notary alleged, Benedict, notary of the bishop of Città di Castello, whom we related above was invited by John to bear the cross of Christ, alleged excellent impediments, which persuaded that they could not be accepted without rashness. Gout hostile to his feet, to which the nakedness of them would be fatal; the pernicious injuries of cold and rains; the intolerable labors of journeys. An abscess of the ear, teeming with continual suppuration, needing coverings and fomentations; the habitude of his whole body akin to sickness. His advanced age, and, accustomed to delights, how would he bear the rigor of the life, and suffer that hard institute of penance, for which scarcely gigantic strength would be equal? That it was a crime to tempt God, and to demand a miracle for removing these things.

[174] being despised and removed. To whom Columbinus: "Let none of these things terrify you; come with me, follow Christ." What more? Drawn by the brief invitement, he put off the world and his secular garments: naked he follows the calling Columbinus, that he may attain Christ. His nakedness conduces to the soundness of his feet; the harshness of penance to the vigor of his strength; his ear, the ulcer being dissipated, is fitted for hearing the voice of the discourses of the Lord; his whole body, recovering from infirmity, becomes strong, and he completed several years spent in labors, in vigils, in hardships, with a most fortunate end [c]…

[175] Leave to preach the word of God being obtained from the bishop, Then John betakes himself to the prelate of the sacred things Lord Buccius [d], and, having saluted him with as great submission as he could, opens the counsels of his institute, that, faculty being obtained from him, he might more freely expend his labor and that of his own in cultivating the vineyard committed to him. They were received most courteously by the prelate, conspicuous in doctrine and piety, and Columbinus especially was held in honor, of whom he had heard long before wonderful and unheard-of things.

[176] he excites wonderful motions in souls, Fortified with this grace, delaying nothing to descend into the arena, with all exertion he sets about to help the citizens, and, an exordium being taken from his solemn watchword, "May Jesus Christ live, live; may Jesus Christ be praised," as by the blaring clangor of a trumpet, he excited wonderful motions in the minds of the citizens. Then, with the addition of private and public sermons, never not breathing the flames of incredible fervor, hearts were roused to piety, occupied by the lethargy of crimes, and were brought from the darkness of ignorance and the torpor of sloth to the light of justice and the care of a salvation before neglected.

[177] Nor were there lacking those who, mediocrity being despised, aspiring to the highest summit of Evangelical perfection, obtained from Columbinus by prayers that they might give their substances to the poor; their names and lives to that society. And the ancient writers named some of these; for instance Stephen, a learned and erudite man, and rich in the goods of fortune, to which he preferred the poverty of Christ [e]. Him followed Bartolus or Bartoluccius de Sanctis, who, converted from the vanity of the world to Christ, so blazed with his love, that at the mere invocation of the holy Name he wholly melted, nor could restrain by the command of reason his tears, and the fiery sparks bursting from his eyes and countenance, in any way. Nay rather, it is handed down to memory that he was wont to be carried away with so great an impulse, that once in the temple of St. Florido, at the time of a sermon which was held there, tearing himself from the midst of the people into the square below, without even touching the fore-threshold steps he was seen to have leapt. No one thus leapt sober; but well did he whom the illustrious cup of the Lord inebriated.

[178] There followed two unnamed, the one a Perugian, whom the discourse of the Servant of God, drawn out of the mire of crimes and cleansed of filth, he joins to his congregation, made worthy of the lot of the Saints. The other a priest, who, a fat priesthood being abdicated, with a counsel full of confidence gave himself to Columbinus to be instructed, and by wondrous harshness of life and assiduity of prayer came to that height of sanctity, that he could be sought for the priestly dignity, of which he had once rendered himself unworthy by his own foulness. But this, which follows, is to be referred to a notable victory of charity, subduing a breast armed with the obstinacy of a sinner.

[179] There was a man of Città di Castello long engaged in wickedness, whom neither a sermon blazing with ardor could bend, and softens an obstinate sinner to penitence. nor a colloquy of one alone with one soften and draw to sounder counsels hitherto had availed. Him Columbinus, setting about to storm with more than usual ardor, with a full invitement of love said: "My brother, if at last you do not refuse to come to your senses, and make an end of sinning, all the merits which up to now I have obtained from the Lord I give you gladly, and for your salvation I pledge them." And Francis Vincent, who was present, subjoined: "And I place the whole burden of your sins on my shoulders, and I undertake to render account of them to the just Judge. The merciful God will approve the pact and promise, if, iniquity being deserted, you return to your heart": by which double battering-ram that rocky crag, being shaken, yielded, and was so far softened, that it emitted rivers of tears…

[180] I will subjoin from a tragic case the outcome of a pleasant narration, Two families, which, fuller in others, is here to be touched briefly, lest, carelessly passed over, it seem to be esteemed of less value. The grave and long-lasting feuds of two Sienese families, of what magnitude and nobility they were, had involved most of the kinship in enmities and hatreds, in unraveling and quieting which for a long time and much, but in vain, the work of several of the chief men of the city had sweated.

[181] The head of one faction, Larinus Tolomei, although implacably hostile to the opposite party on account of the slaying inflicted upon his uncle; dissenting by long-lasting and implacable hatred, yet, since through these days he was detained at Città di Castello, he was vehemently delighted with the familiarity and colloquy of Columbinus, whom, in that expulsion of which we made mention, he was moved by friendship and fidelity to accompany as he departed, and to be at hand in all things, though he did not ask, and trusted in the Lord alone. How could it be that by that sun the dense clouds of discords should not be dissipated?

[182] He heard him discoursing of the office and debt of Christian charity, he reconciles among themselves, and dealing with the examples of Christ the Lord and of the Saints, who for their slayers, that they might be saved, as for benefactors, prayed: by which moved, Larinus at last gave his hands to the one exhorting, and, the bitterness of his offenses being laid aside, resolved to forget his disposition ardent for vengeance, and the injury of which hitherto he had been inexorable in his pardon, and that a way might be closed to repentance, he wished there to exist a legitimate testimony of the reconciliation, which was made before the bishop, and entered into the records; then to Siena, together with most courteous letters transmitted by Columbinus to the Piccolomini, guilty of the slaying, it is incredible to say what an abundant harvest of gladness they brought, not only to the disputing families, but also to the whole city, which to be quiet and serene through this intestine tempest of quarrels had long not been permitted. For even absent he knew how to profit his country, which present he had not hesitated to harm.

[183] To the inmost sanctuaries of the sacred virgins likewise the flame excited from without penetrated, and so strongly seized one of them, that it turned it into itself. There was a house of nuns at Città di Castello, called "del Sacco"; where, as the rest of the discipline had collapsed, and the collapsed poverty of certain nuns so especially the rigor of poverty had plainly languished, because provision in common was almost none, and to the arbitration and faculty of each was permitted her food and dress. To their education and institute Benedict de Pace had entrusted his tender niece, Columbinus persuading, that he might go more unencumbered on the Evangelical course, wherever the salvation of souls and the glory of the Lord demanded that he go.

[184] he restores to its former rigor. Hence occasion was given to Columbinus of dealing a little more frequently with the nuns; and the familiarity turned to happiness: for all that time was expended on discourse about divine things, aiming especially at this, that poverty, on which the foundation of religion rests, should be recalled by postliminy, and property and possession of things to be consumed at pleasure, as a pestilence, should be eliminated from those cloisters: and as we mentioned above that the harder breasts of the men suffered themselves to be bent by the repeated strokes of exhortations; so the softer ones of the women devoted to God suffered themselves to be drawn thither whither the frequent discourse of the good Exhorter impelled. At least six of the chief went before by example, who, whatever of private property they retained with themselves, conferred into the common stock, and to the rule to which they had devoted themselves the observance, they preferred to their own conveniences. To imitate these was not grievous for the rest: nor was that cold word thereafter heard, MINE and YOURS; but all things were Jesus Christ's, and this was their riches and love.

[185] Columbinus, to the bishop of Città di Castello, his friend, During that time the conversation of the bishop Buccius with Columbinus was not infrequent, and the sincere fruit thence of mutual consolation: for he, eminent in doctrine and piety, esteeming with himself the man of wondrous sanctity, embraced John with a tender and paternal affection; and therefore he made it a religious duty to hold his fellows, as no common servants of God, in the place of sons. To declare this by many tokens he did not cease; but this especially, that he vehemently desired to be reckoned in their number, thinking that it did not disgrace his dignity, if, his insignia being safe, and the function of episcopal offices by no means impeded, not only by purpose and will, but also by imitation, as far as was permitted, he might be held and be one of that company: which was the cause that among the prelates whom this Order supplied to the Church he is numbered, and indeed the first who adorned the crown-shunning heads of the congregation with his mitre.

[186] whom, on account of his eminent skill in the sacred canons Conversely Columbinus, as a successor and imitator of the Apostles, especially venerated him; and since he was not ignorant that he was illustrious in manifold erudition, and exceedingly instructed in the skill of the sacred canons, he so depended on his nod and direction in conducting affairs, that he undertook no business of any moment, without consulting him: for although his trust in God was of greater weight, by whose favor honorable counsels are fostered, yet he easily suffered himself to be persuaded by humility and prudence, that recourse should be had to the ready help of a man, filling the place of God on earth, because thence a light most useful for the transaction of affairs would arise, and an authority necessary for supporting them would be had.

[187] in the affairs of his congregation Wherefore, when it had come into his mind to doubt whether that institute of life, which he went on to profess with his own, fortified hitherto by no pontifical diploma, it were expedient to confirm by the approbation of the legate of the apostolic See, then dwelling at Viterbo, or to bring into examination, that it might be seen whether in anything it differed from the norm of the ecclesiastical canons, judging both were to be conferred with the bishop, he received the answer, that as to what pertains to the discrepancy of the canons, he should cease to fear, and lay aside all solicitude; for there is nothing contrary in all that variety of actions, nothing in the manner of life, which is alien from rectitude or the decrees of the Pontiffs, many things which demonstrate a leading and impulse superior to a human rule are to be permitted to the divine governance.

[188] Moreover that at present the procuring of an Apostolic diploma seemed to him superfluous: he had often consulted, let him go on further to keep to that way of simplicity which he had entered, until some light glide down from heaven, which may show the will of the Lord, nor let him doubt that he has care of his affairs, which thereupon he will opportunely show. For he knew, a prelate of great prudence and experience, that the approbation of a rule and institute is a most grave matter of those which are wont to be expected from the indulgence of Christ's vicar, and akin to peril, that it either then be denied, or deferred to another time, in which the now grown congregation, subsisting by its own strength, might prove itself that it was of God, and easily obtain from the Pontiff what would then with difficulty have been obtained from the legate.

[189] After this the Spirit of the Lord called Columbinus to other cities and places of Etruria, he bids farewell, and departs to other places of Tuscany. and therefore with good peace and the blessing of the bishop he departed from Città di Castello, leaving there the memory and fame of his marvels, and love and desire of him in the hearts of the citizens, confessing with one mouth that the city would be rendered golden by his more prolonged stay, than that brief sojourn and cultivation had rendered it silver.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIV.

The great fruit of his sermons in various places of Tuscany, the piety of the Pisans praised by blessed John, the word of God disseminated in other cities, and some disciples gathered.

He goes from Città di Castello Our discourse follows the traveling Columbinus in exactly that order in which the ancient writers noted the individual places of his journeys: for their diligence lent to the studies of later men that they were at least able to name the cities and castles through which he passed doing good, though thenceforth not solicitous to note the times to which his good deeds corresponded. Departing therefore from Città di Castello, to Pisa ^a he set his course not hastily, but slowly and district by district to be accomplished, and thereupon to be intermitted, where the meeting of any village or castle along the way should invite to casting the seed of the divine word.

[191] Arcidosso, where besides other conversions Arcidosso [b], a not ignoble town among the mountains of Siena, first ran into his eyes, to which it pleased him to turn aside, and to stop a while, as in a field, cultivated with frequent inhabitants, through which the fervor of his sermons might run, and bring a fruit not to be repented of; and it was here gathered according to his wish: for the inhabitants, hearing him discoursing of the foulness of sin, of the torments of hell, of Christ's charity and benefits toward men, and of similar things, acknowledged the wounds of their conscience, sought remedies, consulted Columbinus, and conformed their manners to his prescript.

[192] He did not stay long among them, but as long as seemed enough to rouse the people, he rouses one to embrace Evangelical poverty; and to kindle it with the torches of divine love. And in several indeed the desire of a better life was cast and help for coming to their senses afforded; but by the notable conversion of one Columbinus's gladness was heaped up, which, if it had even been alone, he would have esteemed his labor compensated: for he indeed so grew warm with the ardor of the sermons, that, the wealth in which he abounded being despised, and the learning in which he excelled, he preferred the poverty and simplicity of Christ. Nor content to have offered his goods, he offered himself also a living victim on the altar of the cross, and by dire harshness of life, fasting, sleeping on the ground, and the other continual affliction thenceforth did not cease to be slain, and deserved to be truly Just, who under an honorable name imposed by his parents had long concealed a sinner.

[193] The people of Arcidosso being thus moved to piety, he goes on to hasten to Pisa. But here too it pleased him to turn aside a little from the way, Thence, the image of the Mother of God at Cingoli being saluted, and at Cingoli [c] to venerate the most celebrated image of the blessed Virgin. When they came thither, Columbinus anticipated the common prayers of his fellows by a short exhortation, by which he especially admonished that they should earnestly pray God for the nuns of St. Abundius, and pay for the great merits toward himself this exiguous tribute of a grateful mind, that would not be unpleasing to the Virgin.

[194] The prayer being made, they direct their steps straight to the most noble city, [he betakes himself to Pisa, where with his fellows he is shut out of the hospital;] and prosperously arrive. Here, the Godhead being venerated according to custom in the temple, they ask lodging in the hospitals; but, an unknown and numerous people, they are rejected, whether because the house, occupied with the sick, did not hold so many pilgrims, or because the harsh bowels of the superintendents knew not how to have mercy on the poor of Christ, nor suffered themselves to be bent by a humble petition, that they might refresh the weary, and bestow mercy on the needy: whatever at last was the cause of the repulse, shut out of the hospitable roofs, they rejoiced with no small joy, that the inhospitality of a few gave matter of merit, and the divine providence turned it well into humanity.

[195] For when it was learned through the city of their coming, but is benignly received whom fame, spread through Etruria, had preceded to Pisa, invited by many, distributed among some houses of honored citizens, they were to no one so great an inconvenience, and to all they profited conveniently by the example of their life and familiar colloquies about God and divine things: nor indeed did they think it only of great praise and merit with God to treat kindly and largely pilgrims frugal and given to abstinence, but besides they distributed alms in such abundance, that garments, moneys, and gifts of that kind many were brought; which yet all were rejected by them, content with food alone and that most slender, and with worn garments.

[196] This was a token not only of civility, to which the city educated its citizens, by pious citizens, but also of piety and religion, which seemed to have placed their seat at Pisa. And indeed it was reported to him, that no fewer than two hundred matrons were numbered, who with sack and haircloth were wont to tame their limbs, and therefore several men also of the nobility, their husbands or kinsmen, feigned themselves seculars, and by the harshness of their life emulated religious: and therefore with attentive ears and minds the words of the pilgrims were received, whether apart from the multitude they were poured out to a few, or openly through the streets and temples, which frequently was done, they roused to the love of eternal things.

[197] Now it happened once, that to visit the temple of the Friars Preachers by their hosts they were led, and by his one-time confessor, over which with command presided a father, venerable in age and religion, whom Columbinus had once used as the arbiter of his conscience: he, having given many signs of courtesy toward his old client, by the authority in which he was strong, set about instructing him with the best admonitions looking to this, that he should be firm in the purpose once seized, that never in the office of praising and preaching Christ he should grow lukewarm; that he should attend again and again to the internal visitations and consolations of God, lest by sloth or human respect he should suffer them to slip, whenever they were sent by God, in whose hand and arbitration is their time and manner: that it was of the greatest folly to esteem them of less than they are worth; but that in worth they exceed all mortal things.

[198] He added moreover, from the sense of St. Jerome: "If the merchants of the world, as most of you have experienced, sustain such great inconveniences, that they may arrive at uncertain and perishable riches, and keep with the peril of their souls what they have sought with many perils; what must the merchant of Christ do, who spurs him more and more to perfection. who, all things being sold, seeks the most precious pearl? who, with all the wealth of his substance, buys the field in which he may find a treasure, safe on every side from the thefts of robbers?" Thus that good superior was eager to pour fuel on the fire and oil on the flames; and the words of salvation from the mouth of the prudent man were received with no less relish and fruit by the hearer, than ardor by the one uttering them.

[199] Columbinus in a letter given to the nuns of St. Abundius Worthy to be inserted in this place is the letter which, written by his own hand at Pisa, Columbinus sent to the nuns of St. Abundius at Siena: "Mothers most beloved in Jesus Christ crucified. How vehemently I desire to see you and to deal with you, I could scarcely explain in words, although here we have found a great abundance of men and women, excelling in virtues and burning with holy desires, so that they could deservedly draw to see them even those distant a hundred miles, to whom these things were known.

[200] praises the eminent piety of the Pisans, Certainly indeed without shame we cannot compare our life with theirs. Here you would find two hundred who with the harshest haircloth torment their flesh; whence to us is given occasion of giving thanks to God and to our most holy Savior, who keeps for himself more friends devoted to him in the wicked world than we thought, especially at Pisa, who do not bend their knees before the idols of sinners. Besides, there are numbered several noble women, so casting themselves down for the love of Christ and despising themselves, that with bare feet and rude and worn little vestures they do not blush to go about, unlike our little dainty spiritual Sienese women, who all together would not equal even a single Pisan.

[201] declares the singular signs of divine protection toward himself, But by letters I cannot sufficiently declare how great things the most benign God does for the sake of those who trust in him. Indeed I will set before you matter of singular gladness, if I set about to speak of his paternal care over us, which extends so far, that it did not suffer us to suffer even the least inconvenience: for all that time of the journey neither the rain, when it fell from heaven, wetted our cloaks even lightly; nor the cold, when it most raged, bit our limbs, or brought trouble. O good Jesus, blessed are those who hope in you, and trust your providence, never not ready to feed them liberally!

[202] and in it affords a sincere proof of his humility. I confess that to me and my companion Francis some little fear was cast by the pain which the feet of both had contracted, so that therefore with some trepidation I gave myself to the way; but scarcely had each of us begun to tread the ground with our foot, and we obtained health from the good Jesus. He who places his trust in God is freed from all penalty by his gift. For Francis's feet it was never better before this. I indeed, to guard against the prickings of thorns, had smeared my soles with pitch; but I paid the penalty of my rashness: for I was pricked and lacerated by them, because I, John, did not trust in Christ, and therefore we both resolved to carry with us henceforth nothing at all in the midst of our heart except the one Jesus Christ, nor to be solicitous about our conveniences. Would that this be granted to us and to you and to every kind of men by Christ himself, the blessed one." I pray you, my reader, love the simplicity, seriously playing in the letter, joined with the ardor of charity, and venerate the writer, now knowing and speaking nothing else but Jesus Christ crucified.

[203] Not unlike was the rest of his pilgrimage through the celebrated cities of Italy, he preaches Christ in other cities of Italy, which the same love of propagating divine glory and of preaching the name of Christ impelled him to visit: all, namely, was spent amid hymns, sacred songs, and prayers, and, what you may wonder at, unharmed by the injuries of the raging winter. Lucca, Florence, Pistoia saw the pilgrims on earth and received them as angels sent down to them from heaven, in all which the seeds of the divine word were cast, and abundant crops gathered of conversions to God, and of wondrous changes from depravity to honesty of manners, among which are to be recorded in few words two which the people of Pistoia admired: for in that place Peter and Paulinus [e], the vanity of the world being recognized at the new light of the stars there appearing, resolved to bid it farewell, and to cleave to Columbinus, roused by whose example they obtained by prayers to follow his institute.

[204] In which augury indeed the greatness of his mind shone forth, at Pistoia he admits two disciples, esteeming all human things as nothing, and in his progression the fervor of his spirit prevailed, raising each above common probity; but of Paulinus especially a certain vigor of a generous disposition is to be commended, who consecrated the flower of his youth, the domestic conveniences and delights, and all the now-flattering hopes of the world so ardently to the Creator, as constantly thereafter he vexed his delicate limbs with abstinence and every kind of affliction, fed his mind with the sweet food of prayer day and night, and grew to that height of sanctity, that in the pleasure-garden of the Jesuati among the cedars, that is, the names of illustrious virtues, to be related below, he is numbered.

[205] Wherefore Columbinus accomplished these journeys with so great delight, and gladly performs apostolic journeys of this kind. that he confessed himself unequal to declaring it; unless perhaps anyone should think he had declared it enough and more, when he said that a not small part of blessedness through those days had been communicated to him by the Lord: for a joy were the health of his feet wonderfully recovered, the vigor of his strength augmented; but before all the eminent conversions of souls, and the working of prodigies in declaring the divine protection, of which that notable one, mentioned above in the letter to the nuns, added the sharpest goads to loving and praising God, no otherwise than once to the Israelites, to whom the streams of the waves yielded, that with dry foot they might pass through the channels of the sea and river…

NOTES.

CHAPTER XV.

The horrid penance of the Blessed one, his instruction sought by the people of Corsignano, the stubborn hardness of the people of Monticello, yet the conversion of a few obtained, and the sudden healing there of an ulcerous man.

[206] [Columbinus, recollecting his avarice, by which he had once offended the inhabitants of Asso,] That first occurs to the sight, though horrid, nevertheless more worthy of record than of imitation.

Columbinus was going by chance, with Francis Vincent, Vannus, and a third as companions, to Monticello ^a, a celebrated municipality of the Sienese district; and they had to pass through Asso [b], where he had once possessed his ancestral estates and lands, which we related above were given to the monastery of St. Abundius. When he set foot there, the recollection of his former avarice and scandal came into his mind, which by the iniquitous marketing of grain had offended the inhabitants.

[207] he orders himself to be dragged by a rope and publicly beaten with rods there And, blazing up with a sudden hatred against his fault, he put off the tunic with which alone he was covered, put a halter on his neck, and commands one of his fellows to take hold of the rope and drag him and hale him through all the little streets; the other, with brooms prepared for it, not perfunctorily, but seriously with a cudgel to cut all his limbs, the hauler meanwhile proclaiming: "Behold for you a usurious miser, a criminal peculator, who made it a game to oppress you with want and hunger! Behold him who lent you grain worm-eaten and moth-eaten, and then at harvest-time demanded a heaped measure back! This is he who sold a sextary of wheat for a florin! O cruel, O merciless enemy of the poor and needy! Beat, flog, monstrously strike the wicked, impious man, guilty of the gallows and of death!"

[208] he orders by his disciples, And it was necessary for the good disciples to obey one adjuring by all rights, and severely commanding as by authority. The torment was also more bitter, because he went backward while he was beaten, and the weariness impeded the faculty of breathing, without doubt about to suffocate him, if they persevered to prolong the butchery at his pleasure. The multitude of the people shuddered at the foul and deadly spectacle; nor was there one who for the great amazement parted his lips; many who for the tenderness of grief bedewed their faces with tears. Only John, the tragedy being finished, eloquent in praising his floggers, gave thanks to those bewailing him, and entreated a reward from God the remunerator…

[209] [whose obedience is praised; and the Blessed one's hard mortification is compensated by an apparition of Christ.] You would not know to which side the praise and merit of victory inclines; whether it is to be reckoned to stand for the accused, who, that he might act the severe avenger of himself, acted the harsh judge; or for the executors of the command, who could command themselves to perform the parts of an executioner, lest they should seem contumacious and refractory… To both indeed the victorious grace on either side had prepared a great reward; but to Columbinus besides an earnest of ineffable consolation was granted: for on the night following, while he insists on prayers, he is visited by Christ the Lord under a visible form, and is held by his sweet address, with so great and so inmost delight of soul, as mortality cannot be suffused with and live, unless the same which liquefies the heart contain the failing spirit within the limbs.

[210] Asso being left, they came to Corsignano [c], and straightway through the squares the name of the Lord Jesus with praises they began to raise, When he had passed through Corsignano too hastily, and by their cry to summon the frequent people to praise him. His passage there was like a flashing and quickly-slipping lightning: for on the morrow at earliest dawn they hastened to depart, the townsmen either not noticing, or trying in vain to delay them, complaining that he was taken from their eyes too quickly, who by the savor of his presence and of the previous day's discourse had made a great hope of a utility about to flow out to the public from a longer stay.

[211] By common counsel therefore they sent messengers, who, using speed, is recalled by the inhabitants of that place, when he was now distant several thousand paces, having overtaken him, earnestly asked that he not be reluctant to return to them; and indeed also, that they might cast a religious scruple upon the pious Man and compel him to return, they warned that to one resting the past night there had been set a deep and headlong river, in which several were swimming, soon to be swallowed, unless, snatched by the hands of Columbinus and his fellows, they were led out to the shore.

[212] Which being heard, he held it better to yield to the prayers, and to obey those asking, he satisfies their desire; than to weigh the credit of the vision and to shift about. And that he might nowhere repent of his indulgence, the alacrity of the townsmen in embracing him on his return, their eagerness in hearing, their promptitude in performing what was to be done, and what to be omitted, were persuaded; and thus was fulfilled the portent of the invented prodigy: for several emerged from the mire of vices, by the right hand of Columbinus helping, and returned into the favor of the offended Godhead.

[213] But as not all days flow serene and cheerful, but among the people of Monticello, not profiting by his sermons, but for the most part turbid and wrapped in clouds they are carried on by the course of nature; so neither did prosperous journeys always and everywhere favorable to his wishes befall the Evangelical Traveler. At Monticello, near the town of Corsignano, the divine Herald was neither courteously received, nor gladly or patiently heard. The people, indeed, in that age more boorish, and degenerate from the genius of the Etruscan region, showed itself illiberal toward the servants of God, who even by their sight alone and habit, breathing piety, could conciliate benevolence, and whom it behooved to venerate and benignly cherish, dared to vex with mockeries, and to rend with revilings.

[214] Against which madness and wickedness on this side the shield of tolerance was opposed, he foretells to them the divine vengeance, on that the efficacious word of God, fit even for softening stony hearts, unless Satan had stopped their ears. The one remedy which remained for the desperate disease, that of prayer, was applied, by which day and night Columbinus suppliantly asked God, that he would not close the fountains of his mercy to a people of hard neck.

But as the Lord had not concealed from his Servant the scourges which were prepared, if they should persist longer in their crimes, so neither did he himself dissemble or delay to make known the divine indignation, and to terrify with threats of impending destruction, if they should procrastinate returning to their heart and to penance.

[215] But in vain was the threat aimed; in vain was the terror of eternal judgment inculcated, which afterward also followed. that the word of the Lord which he had spoken through his Servant might be fulfilled: for not long after, war having arisen between the Florentines and the Sienese, Monticello, given over to hostile plundering, hired out to deadly calamities, paid immense penalties of its rashness, nor sooner ceased to experience the martial fury, than it was utterly plundered and wholly destroyed.

[216] Nevertheless he converts two at Monticello, Nor yet was his labor altogether barren, or his sermons unfruitful; but as at Philippi in Macedonia, Paul preaching, the Lord opened the heart of Lydia the purple-seller, so that from the company of women she alone was converted to the faith, so Columbinus preaching, the eyes of two men of Monticello were opened, that they understood of how great moment is the business of salvation, which brings with it the eternity of rewards or torments; how vain and fleeting are all earthly things; how brief the course of mortals' life. Farewell therefore being bidden to the world and its deceitful goods, they devoted their minds to heavenly things, and delivered themselves to Columbinus to be imbued with better counsels.

[217] the first of whom was Dominic, One of them, Dominic of Monticello [d] by name, exceedingly skilled in civil law, substituted for the prefecture of Petriolo [e] by the magistracy of the twelve Sienese senators, when he had discharged it, with the consent of his wife Antonia, was initiated into the spiritual soldiery, and made his service under the standard of the cross, of prayer, austerity, tears, by which he expressed the life and manners of his Master, who had expressed those of Christ the Lord in himself, and was a domestic specimen of virtues, and a powerful goad to the disciples for perfection. This is he who translated the book of mystical theology (perhaps written by St. Dionysius [f]) from Latin into Italian, Columbinus assenting, that to the understanding of the deepest mysteries and sublime affections the vernacular tongue might open a way to the ruder, to whom Latinity is unknown: for those hidden things, given in the vernacular idiom, can bring in feelings of piety, and a notice, for their capacity, of divinity.

[218] the other Francis, who afterward The other they named Francis ^g, whose conversion's beginnings the most efficacious force of divine love made memorable, and also the consequent course of his life, and his end interwoven with illustrious deeds, were matter to the writers of proclaiming wonderful things about him: for the first sparks at Monticello John's discourse had struck out, which grew into a pyre, as he himself a little after experienced at Montalcino [h]: for having set out thither with a desire of seeing Columbinus, he turned aside to the house of the flagellants, as they called it, that he might enjoy the converse of the one dwelling there.

[219] then at Montalcino Their custom was on set nights in the temple, adjoining the lodging, to hold their meetings, and to give part to prayers, part to scourging their limbs. It pleased Francis to be present at them, and to beat himself with scourges together with the others. As many strokes as were inflicted on his body, so many torches seemed to seek his heart, which through that night gave place neither for resting nor for keeping silence, John rejoicing vehemently and wondering. He bedewed his couch with tears, groaning that too late he had known Christ and himself; that all whatever he had hitherto done was vanity and a lie.

[220] gave notable proofs of his fervor. But the following night not only did he pass sleepless in prayer and spiritual songs; but with so great a heat of gladness he leaped, that he did not refrain from dancing and leaping, and seemed akin to one raving: and when he remitted nothing at the coming of the following light, that Vesuvius, having fed upon his inward parts, hastily sought Monticello again, and with a most strong cry redoubling the name of Jesus ran through the streets, and, as if some madman shamelessly raved, he raved a sound madness, and through love was furious…

[221] At Monticello also a sick man, Of the few things which at Monticello, where we are dwelling, happened, the grace of health granted to a sick man made faith open even to the incredulous people. Him those who cared for the narration of the deed, not the appellation of a name, left unnamed. He lay affected with the grievous pain of ulcers, which although he bore with equal mind, yet not so far as to be able to dissemble his torment. Columbinus visited him, and consoled him with sweet address, and exhorted him to patience by sentences and examples drawn from the sacred Books.

[222] Among which, the linen and shirt being drawn back, he beholds his limbs gnawed with sores and dripping with gore, whose ulcers he had licked, at once frees him from pain, and, struck with inmost compassion, by a charity mightier than horror and nausea, he does not hesitate to kiss them and to draw his tongue by licking through the wounds, which not even another's hand could handle without disgust. Then he bids him be of good cheer and departs; and with him the pains departed, and in their place quiet was restored to the sick man. There conspired hatred of self and love of neighbor to bring back a victory worthy of Columbinus: but grace, intent on furnishing the triumph, ministered strength and arms to both.

[223] About those days when he had sent to that recovered man as a gift a young cock, who yet not long after dies piously. brought from the table of his host, John ordered it to be announced that all that ardor of his torment had cooled; although it was the divine will to manifest a miracle in the cessation of the penalty, and to call the sick man, snatched from the bonds of mortality, to himself not long after, and to show the merit of his patience by signs, as the report was.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVI.

The abundant fruits of his sermons gathered at Montalcino, the illness of all the companions of blessed John Columbinus, and the sudden healing of one through his prayers. Columbinus at Montalcino so profited by his exhortations, If in arid ground the cast seed of the good Sower gave the thirtyfold fruit, why should not the sixtyfold and hundredfold be hoped for in green ground? From stony Monticello Columbinus came into the good and fruitful land of Montalcino ^a, and there, after the Godhead had been adored in the temple, and his help implored, he began straightway, the care of lodging being neglected, in a sermon openly to declaim against crimes, and to incite sinners to penance with his accustomed ardor, and privately to imbue the people with salutary admonitions. And this exertion and pious zeal held for fifteen days, than which happier ones never before departed for the noble city.

[225] Several, suffused with shame for their crimes, detested them, that not only many to the detestation of their sins, exacted penalties from themselves, broke the impending wrath of God, compensated their misdeeds with good works. It is difficult to go through the individuals who in that exiguous space of time began to be other than they had been before: universally about all there was a constant opinion that they had changed their evil manners and restrained their old laxity to the prescripts of the divine law. The company was led by Faccius, called Beti [b], to whom it had seemed too little to keep the divine precepts, unless he also entered the narrower way of the Evangelical counsels, which Columbinus trod, and which the experiment of his companions demonstrated could be trodden by others. When therefore he obtained by prayers to be enrolled in their number, he proved himself worthy of their fellowship by the change of his manners and the zeal of virtues, and by their exercise tried to emulate angelic purity.

[226] Augustine also and Binda, spouses, drawn by the more powerful allurement of conjugal familiarity, and the contempt of the world, he induced, made their domestic household as a religious dwelling, in which most propensely they worshiped the Godhead, gave themselves to prayer, and unceasingly labored at penance and mercy. Thus, having advanced beyond the common goal of probity, the secular habit being retained, they cast off the whole world. To the languid pleasures of marriage there succeeded spiritual ones, solid and limpid, joined with so great a love toward Christ, that even at the mere naming of him both would grow fervent, and would not refrain from sighs; nay, nor were they to be restrained from exclamations, to which the fervor of their spirit impelled, so that they could say with the sacred Psalmist: "My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God."

[227] To these it befits to number Barnabas (or by surname commonly called Barna) who, from a rich man made poor for the love of Christ, but also many to an ardent that he might draw others also to love him, using a pious art, soothed the ears with the various modulation of songs, and through them thereafter with the more salutary melody of admonitions flowed into the breasts both of the slothful crowd and of the fastidious nobility.

[228] Add Jacopa, to be equaled to the ancient holy women, and love of neighbor and of God he raised. and so esteemed by Columbinus, that he preferred her to all known to him in that time, if a comparison be instituted from her virtues, especially of humility and self-denial. Her heart you would have called a furnace, perpetually burning with the flames of charity, her eyes like two fountains teeming with streams of tears, her words and actions as of a woman alienated from her senses and raised to the highest contemplation: for by a deadly error she would sometimes dash into a burning fire, at other times fall into the streams of waters, nor was she safe from the depths of pits and the precipices of crags, or immune from continual stumblings, because, her mind being drawn away to heaven almost always, she was touched by no care of her body, nor could in any way guard against harms, wholly forgetful of herself and living dead.

[229] But while Columbinus and his companions give their effort to cultivating the minds of outsiders, All the companions of blessed John falling sick and spare not labors, they are at last compelled to succumb to them, not one only or another, but to the number of twenty, that is, all, are seized with fever, John excepted, to whom health was preserved from heaven for the support and solace of the rest: for he was at hand to all with as great sedulity and love as sons not degenerate could promise themselves from the best parent, and would not have dared to demand even of diligent services.

[230] The charity of the citizens betrayed itself in relieving the present necessity and want, and in distributing large alms, by which the sick were abundantly provided, and those loving poverty even in their very sickness. Francis besides, the munificent charity of certain persons so benignly succors, of whom a little before I made mention, as at Monticello the report spread of the misfortune of his companions, delaying nothing, visited them and brought provisions with him. It pleased his wife to accompany him, to whom three other devout old women being joined brought a ready mind for succoring the sick, and testified it with gifts each according to her means.

[231] Besides, a youth of Monticello, desirous of seeing and dealing with Columbinus, and the service of a newly admitted companion obtained from Francis that he should lead him as companion together with himself to Montalcino; and he was led by a spirit not of curiosity but of piety, which easily changed the desire of beholding into a purpose of imitating: for when it was permitted him to meet him, and to hear him uttering the words of eternal life, he went not away sad, like that one of old who preferred his riches to the doctrine of Christ inviting to perfection; but glad he cast off whatever he had, that, light and unencumbered, he might traverse the same stadium with his Master: for the little bag of money, brought with him from Monticello, and his elegant garments he handed over to those three women on this condition, that they should distribute them to the poor, and, content with a vile tunic himself, he thereafter sought nothing except the cross and its fruits in his whole life.

[232] so opportunely it happened, that they recovered, And the aid of the new companion was indeed most opportune to John, who alone was scarcely equal to discharging the offices for the multitude of the sick, and, the help of the robust and fervent youth being added, the work of two brothers availed more than the services of ten servants, and thus it was provided for each, so that all recovered. And although the health bestowed on all was a common benefit of divine grace, yet it willed to be seen singular in a certain one, who was healed by a miracle.

[233] among whom one was suddenly healed by the prayers of blessed John, John, by surname Ambrosii, a noble of Siena, was nearest to death, and it had already been despaired of his life, had not for it, by earnest prayers, it obtained Columbinus as intercessor, to whom the Lord and subduer of death benignly indulged, and heard him entreating for the safety of one soon to die. To him languishing on his bed he said once: "I ask you, my John, which of these two do you judge preferable, that for God and me, far from the fellowship of men and the crowds, I should live solitary; or rather that I should go on to cry out the name of Christ into the minds of mortals, and to prefer the procuring of their salvation to my private quiet and constant contemplation?"

[234] To whom promptly John: "Far be from you, father, the desire of solitude and the longing for idle prayer: to whom his pious Master persuades zeal for souls, far more excellent is it everywhere among the nations to lift up the lofty name of the Lord Jesus with high voices, than to lie hidden in a corner of a house or in some cave of the wilderness, and to defraud the human race, needing your help. To me indeed far graver than the disease itself is the necessity of lying, and the inability publicly to obey and cry out: 'May Jesus Christ live, live.'" By which answer all that little cloud of doubt was dispersed, and his purpose stood, of remaining in the vocation to which he had been called.

[235] The last actor appeared on the stage of Montalcino, a certain youth, [by whom there another disciple, after a hard rudiment of his novitiate, is enrolled in the company.] to whom was entrusted the custody of a little house adjoined to the citadel, to observe the entrances of those wishing to enter, lest they should freely lie open to all. This one so long insisted with prayers upon Columbinus, that he should coopt him among his own, until he was admitted; but, an experiment being premised to explore the constancy of his fervor, he was ordered to lay aside his garments except his shirt, to put a leathern thong on his neck, to be dragged through the city as a criminal, to be assailed with revilings, to be lacerated with injuries; which when the candidate had borne not only with an equal but a cheerful mind, amid the sweet embraces of his companions he put his shoulders under the cross, and committed his will to the leading and governance of Columbinus to be formed.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVII.

The apparition of the absent Columbinus made to another, his knowledge of things far distant, his departure from Montalcino, the miracles wrought on the journey, his arrival at Asciano, and the abundant harvest of the divine word there sown. The power of prophetic light, which, constrained by no straits of times, beholds future things as present, A companion, horrid with a prolix beard, uncombed hair, and long nails having also passed the boundaries of places, beholds distant things from near at hand, was present to Columbinus both often at other times, and when to Francis Vincent, dwelling at Siena, he himself, absent, took care to announce what he had learned by the revelation of the Spirit. For he, indeed, not content with the accustomed harshnesses, assiduously added something for vexing his body, by which the contempt might be augmented, on this side of convenience, on that of honor and his own reputation; and therefore he displayed unshorn and uncombed hair, an uncultivated and growing-wild beard, nails prolixly deformed, so that, as if some rustic or mountaineer came forth from caves into the light, he was to be received with the hisses of the cities and the guffaws of the multitude.

[237] In which deformity of a most foul aspect nothing except the beautiful and upright mind Columbinus approved, Columbinus, far distant, admonishes in a dream to remove that deformity, who therefore, dwelling at Montalcino, gave himself to be seen by Francis through the night at Siena as he rested, and, the rest of his harshness of life being praised, convicted him of the length of his hair and nails, and straightway ceased to be seen and heard. Which portent brought so great delight to his mind, that he even broke off his sleep, which he did not care to recall; but the rest of the night he spent amid divine praises, and, day dawning, he did not delay to cut his hair and nails, and to restore himself to human form.

[238] And although he opened the vision to no mortal, or indicated the cause of the cutting, and he, absent, knows and indicates that he obeyed his admonition. yet Columbinus, divinely instructed, having written on the same day a little letter to his friend at Siena, asked that greeting be given from him to Francis, and at the same time announced that his obedience had been approvable and acceptable to God. At which announcement he easily understood that by the help and favor of one and the same Spirit it had been done, that he who on the previous night had acted as admonisher, should on the following day act as praiser, so that in each office he showed Columbinus greater than man.

[239] Departing from Montalcino to Asciano, When the sick companions at Montalcino had recovered from their infirmities, Columbinus secretly withdrew himself with them from the citizens, lest he be detained longer by the violence of their prayers, and set out on his journey toward Asciano ^a, not only because to a man greedy for reproaches the burden of honor and lavish benevolence was too grievous, with which at Montalcino he was pressed by his admirers, but because to one wondrously blazing with the desire of exalting the name of Jesus the greatest loss seemed a longer delay, when he had already sufficiently impelled the minds of the inhabitants to his worship and love; and therefore he hastened to go out, that he might water the arid fields of the neighboring people with the saving shower of the Gospel.

[240] and hungering on the journey Fasting therefore and furnished with no viaticum they give themselves to the way, which, amid chanting and praying, being for the greater part accomplished, drawing near to the town, wearied and famished, they turn aside to the cottage of a peasant on the way, and ask, by the love of Christ, that he be not reluctant to succor those extremely needing food. To whom the farmer, a man of ancient probity: "My store is indeed scanty and my house poor, but however small it be, it is yours."

[241] in a prodigious manner cabbages Then Columbinus, "O good man," he said, "you prepare cabbage for us, think you have prepared a fat table." To whom the host: "If a hundred gold pieces were paid for it, it would still not be found: for the band of Anichino, or some other soldiers, driven partly by hunger, partly by fury, not only the edible herbs, but even the very trees, tore up by the roots, and scraped bare the surrounding fields alike." Nevertheless, to the one urging him to ask, that he go to the garden, perchance to find what he did not hope for, he complies, otherwise certain that in all that neighborhood not even a trace of cabbages remained. Scarcely does he set foot in the garden, and he beholds cabbages fructifying in it, and, the prodigy being recognized, amazed and rejoicing, he promptly plucks them, boils the cleansed ones, and, seasoned, sets them before the guests.

[242] and obtains leeks for himself and his fellows. But John, not yet content, signifies that he desires besides a few leeks. He replies that the same misfortune had happened to the leeks as to the cabbages; that he would seek them, however, if he bade, by no means doubtful that in finding them he would be as fortunate as in those; nor did the outcome teach him mistaken: for, returning to the garden, he found fresh leeks; the gathered little bundle he cleanses, washes, offers to the guests, and gladly exhorts them to enjoy the heavenly gifts…

[243] At Asciano he gathers abundant fruit of preaching, Their strength being therefore refreshed by the wondrous food, the pilgrims entered Asciano, now known by fame, and, fervent in spirit, thundered through the squares and crossroads the name of the Lord, and, the solemn watchword "May Jesus Christ live" resounding in the air, the people, roused to his sermons, heard him eagerly making words about the contempt of human things, about penance, about the kingdom of heaven, and was salutarily instructed unto salvation.

[244] (the Blessed one himself indicates this in a certain letter, A witness of the most abundant harvest, gathered in the ample municipality, there survived a letter of Columbinus himself, in few indeed, but most weighty, words written thence to the nuns of St. Abundius: "He," he said, "who by the help of your prayers showed himself benevolent toward me, kindled Asciano with so great ardor, that he reputes himself blessed who is able to exclaim 'May Christ crucified live,'

and so great a change in it, so great charity has followed, that it is an admiration to those beholding it."

[245] and other eyewitnesses confirmed) And soon: "Here all blaze even to madness with the love of Christ, so that they are now delighted to hear nothing except the name of Christ, and doubly more their faith and charity are augmented," etc. [b] That these things were so was found by experiment by some religious men of the Franciscan family, who, having set out thither with other seculars, scarcely believed their own eyes, seeing the grace of the divine Spirit so affluently diffused in the hearts of those faithful, that they confessed it not without reason to be equaled to the ancient centuries of the nascent Church.

[246] The memory and fame of the sanctity of one especially flowed down to posterity: and there he admits a notable disciple into his congregation. Jerome was the man's name, illustrious for the commendation of his doctrine, which yet he loved to submit to the simplicity of Columbinus's life: for committing himself to his discipline, he spread his sails to attaining Evangelical perfection, and, holding his navigation through the salt waves of poverty and penance, brought the precious wares of virtues, especially of contemplation, into port, and was held worthy to whom, after Columbinus's death, the helm of the whole Order should be entrusted [c], which to have hinted let it be enough in this place, being about to say more of him below [d].

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The return of blessed Columbinus to the city of Siena, the former rigor of discipline and poverty among the nuns of St. Abundius restored by him, his cousin brought to a severe method of living by his exhortation and a miracle. The sun rises and sets, and returns to its place, says Solomon. And our shining sun, risen at Siena once to the world and again to heaven, The Blessed one, returned to his country, seemed to set when he was driven into exile, when he completed his circuits, when, traversing the various shores of Etruria, he illuminated them with the light of sanctity and preaching; and at last to his country, carrying his sheaves, with exultation he returns; with how great good of it, even into the present time the monuments dedicated to posterity testify, among which the last in dignity is not that which nearest followed his return: the beauty of poverty restored to the convent of St. Abundius, and the ornaments of virtues, which accompany it, brought in.

[248] Its discipline had not indeed collapsed, nor did honesty exile itself from the sacred enclosures, or had any license obscured the fame of probity among outsiders; the nuns of St. Abundius, but, which is the calamity of the times and the weakness of our humanity, gradually turning aside from the rigor of the Benedictine institute, which it professes, to the private conveniences of the nuns in food and dress, it had indulged to each the possession and use of her own money. This relaxation grieved Columbinus, very well knowing how safe and how unencumbered to religious perfection and to heaven is the way of poverty; and he set about to think seriously with himself whether by any means he could cast into the virgins, dear to God and to himself, a desire of it, and induce them to abdicate the property of their goods.

[249] counsel being taken with the abbess, There presided at that time over the monastery Lady Paula ^a, notable above common women for prudence, and of a genius most fit for undertaking the interior discipline. Which was the cause that Columbinus did not hesitate confidently to open to her his thoughts, and, the excellence of poverty, which Christ had consecrated on earth, being quite often inculcated, he easily drew her to his opinion, and persuaded her to act as intermediary with the nuns, when he himself had represented the matter, at first sight harsh and hedged with its difficulties, as sweet and easy, if perhaps, which he hoped, without tumult and the ill-will of anyone holy poverty could in some way be recalled by postliminy within the sacred walls.

[250] he exhorts to perfect poverty, The condition being accepted from the upright superioress, Columbinus undertakes the arduous work, and both privately with individuals, and publicly before all, began to discourse of the splendor and merit of religious poverty, and, authorities being sought from holy Scripture, and examples of the Saints, especially the Benedictines, to extol its necessity and to set forth its fruits, with an oration so attempered to the disposition of the pious women, that not only did they assent to his words; but also thought it a crime to disparage his counsels.

[251] and persuades them to a more exact observance of that virtue; The wills of the virgins therefore being inclined to the best part, the matter was at last brought to this, that all things which each kept with herself were conferred into a common heap, and left to the arbitration and disposition of the superioress, who providently and lovingly for the future would succor the necessities of all, and by her own solicitude would beget for the rest a quiet and tranquillity free of cares, that they might more earnestly give themselves to their perfection and to divine service.

[252] which being done, demons were heard to flee, The whole house being composed to the most desired form of a fair community, the monsters of the pit shuddered, and, a great crash being made, the Stygian inhabitants were heard, as if driven from their seat, headlong to depart, no otherwise than the remnants of a defeated army snatch themselves by a tumultuous flight from the sight and sword of the victor. Thus Ambrose, one of the companions, was wont to relate, who, passing the night in a house next to the convent, awake had heard the noise and gnashing of the fleeing spectres, and therefore with inmost joys Columbinus went about, interpreting from a not light conjecture that the wicked inhabitants had been driven thence by the force and command of the heavenly guardians, and that the dwelling would thereafter be pleasant to the virgins and to their king Jesus Christ, into which the most pleasing poverty had brought the choir of virtues.

[253] and five noble girls consecrated themselves to the same monastery, The most sweet odor of the illustrious deed, straightway spread through the city, moved the minds of many to the veneration of the place, and, Columbinus persuading, easily were the nobles of Siena induced, that their daughters, into whom a mind of chastity was cast from heaven, to be consecrated to the Lord within the religious cloisters, they should offer and should prefer to no other the convent of St. Abundius. In which kind a spectacle full of pleasantness and pious was exhibited to the city on the first day of the more sacred week, on which five girls of the chief nobility, their foreheads bound with olive branches, carrying palm branches in their hands, their mothers and other matrons accompanying, Columbinus going before, were led thither, and, their hair being cut off, amid musical concerts, clad in the Benedictine habit, devoted themselves to the divine servitude.

[254] So greatly did Columbinus esteem the sanctity of that place and the discipline of its manners, which blessed John loved with a most tender affection, that he thought no one of the convents of virgins which Italy nourishes was to be preferred to it, and—if envy be absent from the word—that it was to be preferred to all; and therefore not infrequently he visited it, not only for the sake of courtesy but also of charity, that he might add spurs to those running, and bring solace: and this kind of office was most pleasing to all, but to Lady Paula especially, who in the administration of the family esteemed it true prudence to lean more on the counsel and admonitions of the man of God, than on her own prudence; although from long familiarity with him she had imbibed such an opinion of the woman's probity and excellence of judgment, that he deemed her worthy to whom he might entrust a great part of his secrets, and might explore her opinion in many things, in whose heart, besides the love of Christ (as Jerome says) which is wisdom, chastity, patience, justice, and the other virtues, no other love dwelt.

[255] And as once the rising sun found Benedict and Scholastica amid divine colloquies, whom the setting sun had left intent on the same, forgetful of sleep and wakeful for divine things; and whose abbess he greatly esteemed, so Columbinus and Paula, conversing of the immense charity of Jesus Christ toward the human race, of the mysteries of his life and passion, sometimes passed whole nights sleepless; and his disciples heard him more than once frankly confessing that he most greedily gaped after the pleasant things of that place, as of some paradise, in which he knew that the angels, and their Emperor, gladly sojourned.

[256] Nor did he dissemble that, for the sweetness of his affection, he was wont to accomplish all that space as he himself abundantly indicated by words and deeds. by which the gate of the city is separated from the monastery, amid sighs and tears; and there exist bright testimonies of this love and esteem, the offering of his little daughter, the largess of the third part of his goods, the designation of his tomb, and things similar to these, of which it pleased to have said a few, it will befit to superadd more hereafter. But instead of all, the treasure of letters [b], given to Lady Paula and the nuns, is a living and clear interpreter of the most strong bond of friendship, by which the friends of God were mutually bound in Christ…

[257] To Columbinus, desiring under the standard of the highest poverty to gather also feminine cohorts, it came into his mind to think of his cousin, His cousin, whom the vigor of her age, the innocence of her life, and, beyond her sex, the maturity of her judgment commended, and, as it were, represented fit for laying the first stone of the building. Her name was Catharine, daughter of Thomas his cousin, and, as may be conjectured from the series of the events, which the writers did not betray, bereft of both parents.

[258] From marriage indeed she bore a mind averse; yet not in any way propense to the religious state. averse from a more austere kind of life She had resolved within her paternal home to keep her virgin self chaste for Christ, and, far from the waves of exercises by which the virgin convents are occupied, to spend the time of her pilgrimage privately, as free from another's command as to be spontaneously devoted to prayer and good works: from which purpose of life Columbinus often tried to lead her to the better counsels of poverty; but he beat the air, the discourse seemed hard, and was received coldly, nay, even irksomely, until it pleased the Lord to open her heart, and to fit it for the heavenly infusions.

[259] to embrace Evangelical perfection The houses inhabited by him and by Catharine a party-wall joined, in which, by the consent of their kinsmen, a window was permitted for conversations, and for the mutual services of kindred opportune. Hither, at the first watch of the night, his cousin is summoned by John, and by a question akin to an excuse she asks whether he is the untimely interrupter of her meditated prayer. To whom she: "Candidly I will confess, I was thinking now not of prayer, but of rest, to which evening and darkness invite the household; and behold the lamp which I have prepared and filled with oil, that it may abundantly suffice for one seeking to go to bed, and not thinking to keep vigil longer."

[260] with various arguments and examples Here it was ready for John to recall the parable of the prudent virgins, who took oil with them in their lamps, and to apply it to those who prepare their lamps, that is, who adorn their souls with virtues, and, temporal things being despised, seek eternal ones, placing all their trust in the providence of the Lord, who feeds the fowls of the heaven and has care of all… And when he went on to urge with examples and arguments, the Lord added grace to his words and force to his ardor, so that the heart of the hearer was bent to wisdom, and gradually, the vigor and splendor of the word penetrating to the marrow, was illumined.

[261] he had often exhorted, which at last. And the business was happily accomplished, when, roused by an unexpected prodigy and wholly overcome, she most readily gave her hand, and wholly yielded to the arbitration of her exhorter: for when he perceived from her countenance and eyes the change of her mind, and noticed that he had usefully bestowed his effort, he wished to dismiss her, and sent her away to rest: and she went away indeed unwillingly, but, thinking that modesty was to be spared, obeyed, lest by a longer delay she should create trouble for one who had long spoken.

[262] a miracle being seen, But scarcely had she withdrawn her foot, when through the chinks of the windows she beholds the dawning day, and, marveling: "Now," she says, "it is not time for sleeping; the day has dawned, and the sun illumines the lands." To whom John: "What day is it? Look at your lamp": and, her eyes turned to it, she sees it swelling with the oil in no way diminished, and yet during all this time of the conversation she does not doubt it had burned, and it behooved that credence, which could not be denied to the eyes of both beholding, be granted to the miracle.

On this side the sun's rays demonstrate that a whole night had passed; on that the oil floating above testifies a force superior to nature in its own conservation.

[263] she followed the counsel of her exhorter. Indeed Catharine is amazed, nor does she sufficiently grasp what she experiences done: how it could be that that nocturnal space of many hours, as a moment, without weariness and lassitude, nay, spent with the highest delight, should leave her vigorous and alert, as if she had rested very long and sweetly slept. Then, her mind raised on high, she recognizes not obscurely the will of the Godhead calling her to itself, and interprets the marvelous deed as confirming Columbinus's sayings, which therefore to resist any further would be impious and noxious, but to assent to them a most salutary counsel and the prudence of the Saints. Nor did she delay to open this feeling of her mind and resolve to John, and to offer herself ready for all things which it might please him to command [c]…

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIX.

The various miracles which happened in the life of blessed John Columbinus. I begin from a prodigy no less horrid in appearance, than plainly wonderful in its unexpected outcome. Columbinus had gathered himself and his own from their daily labor with outsiders into the little house, A disciple, on account of importunate garrulity, which for a dwelling we related above was sought, and because it was winter, and their limbs, ill-covered, grew stiff with cold, they warmed themselves at the fire; and that to their minds too their own warmth might not be lacking, with divine colloquies they rendered that modest indulgence more relishing. One of them, whether from a lust of contradicting or an itch of speaking, untimely too clever with quibbles, impeded the sweetness and fruit of the discourse.

[265] The good Father, ill-bearing this, "To what end," he said, ordered to place his head in the fire, keeps from injury, "these preposterous subtleties, except that a friendly conversation be involved in altercations? Indeed you are guilty of no light fault, and worthy to be compelled to press your mouth to these kindled coals: and this penalty of your levity I impose on you, that the rest by your example may become more cautious. Straightway therefore put your insane head to those burning coals, and do not move it thence unless bidden." Straightway the disciple obeyed the fatal command, and put his neck under the flaming wood, and undaunted remained, until the Master ordered him to withdraw it. Wonderful to say and difficult to believe, did it not have eyewitnesses, as many as stood by the fire ^a, and had shuddered at the horrible thunder of the command, and from horror had passed into ecstasy and amazement, the miracle being seen [b]…

[266] While our John traversed the villages and castles of the Sienese dominion, and another sick man one of the companions at Terranera [c], not so far from the city of the municipality, fell into a disease, by whose gravity his strength was shaken and his stomach so weakened, that it spurned any food, and indeed exceedingly abhorred it. The sickness of his languishing son anguished the bowels of the merciful Father, and, that he might bring some relief, he asked earnestly and almost compelled him frankly to open, of all the viands that might be set before his mind, whether any pleased his palate, or provoked his appetite? To whom the sick man: "A salad," he said, "of lettuce I would eat with relish."

[267] Straightway Columbinus runs to the garden; but of lettuce not even a trace does he find, obtains lettuce from heaven. nor does any hope shine anywhere of finding it, because herbs of this kind, in the highest heats of summer, such as it then was, no peasant of that place had cultivated or sown. It must be sought therefore from heaven, which earth denied: and, cast on his knees, he asks lettuce of the Father of mercies, who produced every green herb, and, to those asking bread, gives not a stone. Scarcely had he begun his prayer, and he beholds lettuce curling in the soil, reaps it, prepares a vinegar-dish, sets it before the sick man, which, pleasantly chewed, was a present antidote, and wholly dispelled all the malice of the disease. Not single was this fruit of prayer: for both the lettuce, by its efficacy, the earth germinated, and it obtained health for the sick man…

[268] To one dying, health Louis Marescotti [d], a noble of Siena, a black fever had so prostrated, that his safety, despaired of by the reckoning of the physicians, was bewailed by his household. Him, as a familiar, Columbinus visited, wont also to strangers and unknown persons not to deny this kind of office. When he set foot in the sick man's chamber, he perceived that his strength had ebbed, and that the last hour of his life was near at hand, nor that the physicians were mistaken who had pronounced it done with his safety. Nevertheless, while he himself insists on acting the consoler with pious colloquy, and persuades him to hope well in the clemency of God and the merits of Jesus Christ, "What," said Louis, "should I hope? When I struggle with death, and SCARCELY now can I speak, should I hope to live?"

[269] and predicts a son to be begotten. But Columbinus answers, from consoler become a prophet: "Indeed I bid you hope; you shall not die; you shall recover, nay rather you are reserved for the opportune begetting of a son, whom the good Lord is to give you." What more? He who among his last gaspings was now not for turning his tongue, breathed again, recovered, saw his wife carrying in her womb and bringing forth a boy, on whom it pleased to bestow the name of Angelus, as on offspring coming from heaven. There went through the mouths and discourses of men both the parent's safety, obtained by John's prayers, and the son's begetting foretold by prophecy: and of both Louis was wont again and again openly and privately to make pleasant commemoration, both for the benefit received, and for the sake of proclaiming the benefactor's sanctity.

[270] A certain man gravely wounded, Somewhat more splendid was, in a deadly case, the assertion of one [e] from the doors of death into life. This man was going with John to the temple of the Friars Minor in the town of Columbaio [f], subject to Siena; and, a stone falling from a lofty roof, he was lethally wounded in the right temple, for whom the skilled physicians pronounced that no remedy remained humanly. Columbinus fled to the help of the heavenly Physician, and was not frustrated of his hope: for, the wound being straightway healed, it was permitted the sick man to rise, and to complete the rest of the journey with his benefactor.

[271] and another afflicted with pains In the same place, visiting one tormented with sharp pains, he consoles him with most courteous words, and by the hope of eternal joys exhorts him to tolerate the momentary tribulation; then at his departure, having prayed well, he bids him be certain of God's clemency. Nor did his words go into the wind, as he departed: for straightway the force of the pains remitted, and a little after the sick man recovered, which he ordered to be announced to John by a servant, a gift also being sent to indicate his gratitude to one seeking or wishing nothing except the honor of God and the good of his neighbors.

[272] he restored to health, He confessed thereafter that he acknowledged himself affected with a greater gift, when, the disease recurring, its troubles were tolerated with unusual patience and equanimity of mind, at which both he himself and his household wondered, who, comparing his past peevishness with his present gentleness, ascribed the benefit to the prayers of Columbinus, God willing through them to heal at once the sickness of mind, and of body vexed with pains, and to reserve him unharmed for the wonderful deeds which afterward were wrought by him.

[273] From the affluence of the interior light of the same, with which the mind of Columbinus, perpetually illumined, shone, into the exterior limbs of the body sometimes rays were poured out, [and, in the presence of his companions, having suffered a swoon of soul from the heat of divine love]

which could not but be seen by the eyes of his companions: having once gone out with them into a field, that far from the din of the city he might tranquilly meditate on heavenly things and speak of them more freely and prolixly, the pleasantness of the flowering meadow inviting and supplying matter for discourse, he set about to speak of the goodness and wisdom of the Creator, shining forth even in the very herbs and flowers, and, the flame of love growing amid his words, drawn away from his senses he fell prone on the ground, and ceased to move his tongue.

[274] The companions recognized the divine infusions and a swoon not unlike that languor, flashes with immense splendor. with which the most chaste spouse testified that she melted away, and asked to be supported with flowers and surrounded with apples for the solace of her swoon; and, little flowers being plucked here and there, they covered on every side the one cast on the ground, so that not even the least part of his body lay open to the gaze: then eagerly hastening to take away the same, because, consecrated by that touch, they were held for relics, when they uncovered his face, it shone splendid as the sun, and by its brightness the sharpness of the eyes, not enduring to fix their gaze, was dazzled, until it gradually remitted, and his face was restored to its former form and color: which yet not at once, but slowly succeeded, a flame-like ruddiness clinging to his cheeks and bringing comeliness, such as sometimes, expressed by skilled painters, represented a seraphic face darting flames [g].

NOTES.

CHAPTER XX.

The departure of blessed John from the city of Siena to Viterbo, the ingenious industry of a youth on that journey, that he might become the Blessed one's disciple, and other things worthy of record which were done at Viterbo. While blessed John, with his companions, about to meet the Roman Pontiff, About the year 1367 Urban the Fifth set out from Avignon ^a, and, proceeding by a maritime journey, with a favorable voyage was at last landed at the port of Corneto [b]. When Columbinus learned this, thinking that an occasion was offered him of deserving well of the supreme Pontiff, and of seeking some support for his new congregation from the supreme authority, he deemed it fair to communicate his counsel to his companions, whom it concerned, and by the rules of prudence diligently to discuss it. And these, reasons being weighed on either side, thought it expedient to go to meet him, not only that to the supreme Prelate, by the kissing of his feet, they might pay due veneration and reverence; but also that they might render an account of their institute and manner of living, as to the vicar of Christ, to whom to know it especially pertains, that the little skiff of their new company, tossing amid the waves of human judgments and discourses, he might strengthen with the anchor of pontifical firmness, and by approbation guard from the incursions of perils.

[276] He sets out from Siena to Viterbo, And so, rejoicing in hope and trusting in the Lord, they set out on their journey, by which the way is from Siena to Viterbo [c], and, softening it, by custom, with the songs of meditations and divine praises, the broad plains, the depths of valleys, the heights of mountains thereupon they filled with the sonorous jubilation of their voices: "May Jesus Christ live; may Jesus Christ be praised." And the beginning of that journey was fortunate and celebrated by the ingenious device of one youth, and by an industry by no means to be passed over in silence.

[277] a youth, who had often sought in vain to be enrolled in Columbinus's company, Blancus de Sanctis [d] (he was sprung from the municipality of Anciolina [e] of the upper valley of the Arno [f]), sent by his parents while still a boy to Siena, was giving his effort to learning the art of wool-working, and on account of his long habitation in the city was everywhere called a Sienese, although in the region of the Florentine dominion he had his birth. The ingenuous disposition of his mind, and, in a beautiful body, a fairer virtue, had rendered him dear to his equals, acceptable to his elders, lovable to all; but to Columbinus among few, contemplating the fruit of heavenly grace in that flower of age: he was admitted to familiarity and frequent colloquies; not yet, however, to his fellowship and habit, although sought by frequent and importunate prayers, whether because his tender and delicate age seemed unequal to the harshness of that life, or because, while the constancy of a purpose is proved by delay, the price also of the ware and its esteem is augmented, and it avails much for establishing it.

[278] he anticipates them on the journey, and courteously invites them to dinner, But when his prayers had less succeeded, he fled to art. On the day when they had to depart, he himself hastened to go before the travelers, not even thinking of it: and when to a lodging about three miles distant (whether a hired one or of some friend?) he had come, he took care to have a dinner prepared, most convenient for refreshing them, that is, modestly elegant and liberal, such as could be offered by a not avaricious host, and received by religious guests, fairly. These, when they passed by, were beheld by Blancus with a countenance rosy between cheerfulness and modesty; bidden farewell unexpectedly, they are earnestly asked to deign, for the love of God, to take a morsel of bread in the nearby lodging; that there a breakfast was prepared, which would not displease them, because it was furnished by hospitable poverty.

Whom, though hard and boorish, would not the festive courtesy and youthful candor, shining in the gentle invitement, have bent?

[279] They turned aside therefore, and, received with full congratulation of services, after a little rest all reclined at the table, which being finished, he urgently repeats his petition, to which with so great alacrity Blancus brought and ministered the foods, as if to a king or emperor he had rendered services. After the dinner, before the journey was resumed, hope giving him courage and desire impelling him, Blancus appears in that crown of the guests, and, prostrate on his knees, his face bedewed with tears, renews his supplication, and adjures Columbinus by the charity of Christ, no longer to defer his old and ardent wishes, as he knew them; that he would not rise before he was received by a benign embrace as companion and son.

[280] The bowels of the best Father were moved, so that he assented to the petition so fervid, and obtains his wish. and, having followed him with the mark of salutation, a kiss in turn, he made from a candidate a novice of the new soldiery, from a merchant an athlete of Christ. But Blancus, seeming blessed at the long-desired inauguration, bidding farewell to wool and flax and all secular gain, was made a companion of the pilgrimage, which led to Viterbo, and which led to heaven, as in its place below I purpose to relate [g].

[281] Thus, the strength of the body being refreshed with food, and their minds cheered by the fair accession of Blancus, Thence blessed John and his companions the rest of the way they accomplished in the same tenor as they were wont, of prayers, pious colloquies, spiritual songs; and because the fame of Columbinus's sanctity had grown frequent through all that region, wherever he went, it excited a desire of seeing and honoring him, so that it was not necessary to beg alms, for to those not asking alms were eagerly supplied: which when it happened everywhere in the towns and castles wherever there was a passage, at Viterbo especially the magnificent liberality or mercy toward the poor of Christ willed itself to be seen.

[282] For the religious company, having entered there, where it worshiped God with adoration in the chief temple, they come to Viterbo proceeded to the greatest square, and there, when Columbinus had held a sermon to the crowded multitude, he did not blush to use the ground for a table and openly with his companions to take food, and, simplicity being minister, to exhibit a specimen of frugality and temperance. And although there were not lacking those who earnestly invited him into their houses to eat and almost compelled him; yet fearing lest with his numerous company he should incommode his hosts, he preferred the public square to private halls and fat tables to the food of bread and cold water.

[283] But the honorable citizens ill-brooked those newcomers concealing the splendor of their nobility under the obscurity of their garments, where they are benignly received by the citizens, and their sanctity by their habit and manners testifying it, that after the weariness of their pedestrian journey they should, in the public light, break their fast with little morsels of dry bread, and meanly satisfy the necessity of nature, and therefore not a few hastened to heap up manifold viands with that promptitude which should be equal to declaring their profuse benevolence, and superior in number and to the need of those eating. For each placed part of his glory in the largess, and the zeal of very many burned in rendering services and offering gifts, as Columbinus himself left it testified in letters given to Lady Paula, often mentioned [h].

[284] And a heavenly prodigy augmented the veneration, which, at their very entrance, in the eyes of all, for the commendation and honor of his servants, it pleased the divine goodness to display: and by infants they are wonderfully called Jesuati. for as they went in troops through the city, when to see them the multitude of the people poured itself forth, and heard, marveling, them proclaiming "May Jesus Christ live; may Jesus Christ be praised," behold, suddenly the tender infants, their little lips being for a while removed from the nipples of the breasts, cried out: "Behold the Jesuati: these are the Jesuati: do good to the Jesuati," the crowd, which was present around, being amazed, and the miracle, both in the salutation imparted by the little children, and in the formation of the name, which through mute tongues we truly judge was articulated by the angels…

In whatever manner those infants became eloquent heralds, if anyone doubt or deny that their voices, not by stammering, but by speaking distinctly, gave the name to the Jesuati, he indeed is injurious to antiquity, which, celebrated by the tradition of a miracle from its origin, and by monuments certain, had hoped for an unhesitating credence from ages to come ⁱ.

[285] Columbinus visits at Viterbo the abbot of Marseilles, It seemed good to John during those days in which he was dwelling at Viterbo, to visit some of the chief men, that with them he might have some fruit, as also with the common people. He went therefore to Urban's nephew, the abbot of Marseilles, then dwelling there; and he was received lovingly by him, and, speaking of divine things, was very benignly heard. He loved in him the candor of his mind and Christian simplicity; but his ardor of charity he so looked up to, that he did not hesitate to confess that the name of Saint, commonly given to him, was deservedly due.

[286] from whom he refuses to receive money offered: But among the other signs of love and honor which he had given while they were dwelling in the city, this besides he added to them departing, namely a little bag full of money, a necessary viaticum for the journey, as he thought, which yet Columbinus, thanks being given for his largess, steadfastly refused, lest by that support a blemish should be cast over his supreme confidence in the divine providence, or anything should be detracted from the brightness of a most exact poverty: which abstinence availed much for confirming and augmenting the esteem of the sanctity of the man of God.

[287] then he goes to the Count of Nola, What follows has, in a very light matter, a weight by no means light. There acted at Viterbo as captain, as they commonly called it, of the patrimony, the Count of Nola, a man illustrious in birth, powerful in favor and authority with the prince and the people. Him too Columbinus had resolved to meet with this counsel, that to a man engaged in secular business something of Evangelical salt might be rubbed off from the colloquy, and, to the memory of one wandering through earthly things, eternal things might be recalled.

[288] who invites him to supper; The visit succeeded according to his wish: for when the count began to taste the savor of his words, roused by an appetite of his most sweet familiarity, he invited him to sup with him, and, that he might not refuse the profane banquet, affirmed that by his presence and that of his own and by discourse it could be rendered sacred. Nor did John suffer himself long to be asked, presaging in spirit that this facility of his would not moderately profit the inviter.

[289] but when the Count did not dare to eat lettuce, On the appointed day they come to supper, which, by the custom of the region in the summer time, was begun with lettuce: this, while the other guests tasted it, the captain could not endure even to look at except with a twisted gaze; at which John, feigning to wonder, asks what the cause is, why he abstains from the most savory viand and delight of the first table, and invites him at least to taste it modestly. To whom he: "For fourteen years I have not even touched lettuce, because my stomach does not tolerate the coldness of the herb, and, if it is taken in, it is not digested except after a long night's struggle and torment, and therefore all appetite for food is lulled, nor is it roused except by a troublesome fast."

[290] Then John: "Let my lord not fear, for the love of Christ, to eat one mouthful or two,

John persuades him to eat it, and asserts that it will do no harm, and let him hope it will do no harm." "I will take it," he answered, "though certain of the vexation that will disturb my rest the whole night"; and one leaf, in favor of the one asking, well chewed, he swallowed. And behold, a prophecy at the banquet: again he is bidden to be of good cheer, that from that moment all weakness of his stomach would pass into vigor, and its strength would strongly digest all cold things.

[291] The outcome proved the truth of his saying; the count perceived his inner parts grow warm from the taking of that mouthful;

which prediction the outcome proved to have been true. and they persevered so far in being invigorated thereafter, that all colder things, and things more difficult of digestion, were eaten with impunity. And he rejoiced to relate the deed to all the Prelates, and even to Urban himself, who all wondered, and said that, just as Christ the Lord had rendered the nuptials of Cana of Galilee auspicious by the wonderful conversion of water into wine, so he had willed to honor by a miracle that supper, salutary and memorable to the count, that it might become known in what place he held Columbinus with himself, and how greatly he wished him to be esteemed by men and the sacred princes of the Roman court.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XXI.

The journey of blessed John to Corneto, the reception of Pope Urban in the port of Corneto, the departure to Viterbo, his congregation approved by the supreme Pontiff, and a uniform habit prescribed to all his companions. Columbinus and his companions, having set out for Corneto Urban was daily expected in the port of Corneto, whose landing Columbinus hastened to anticipate with some foster-sons of his discipline, especially Vincent, older than the rest, and, by long use and experience of affairs, fitter for taking and giving counsels. But although the city, intent on the apparatus for receiving the supreme Pontiff, had not enough leisure or mind for receiving the foreign newcomers with honor; yet when it beheld men come to it, raised above mortals by the fame of their virtues and prodigies, it derived even part of its cares to receiving them lovingly and treating them liberally.

[293] among other things they expend their effort on adorning those things, But they, content with a few things, turning all their zeal to the salvation of souls, as elsewhere everywhere, to exalt the name of the Lord, to declaim against vices, to exhort all to penance, and what remained of time from those offices was diligently given to furnishing and adorning the conclaves of the Pontiff and Cardinals, and to composing the couches; and this sedulity was not unpleasing to the workmen assigned to it, who were relieved by another's labor, and redeemed with no price another's labor spontaneously exhibited; very acceptable also to the Friars Minor of St. Francis, whose convent, as sacred and ample, the magistracy had designated as a fitting lodging for the Vicar of Christ.

[294] which were being prepared to honor the coming of the Pontiff, And when a wooden bridge, of hasty indeed, but elegant workmanship surpassing the material, was being built on the shore, that the descent from the sea might be more convenient and honorable, they conferred part of their diligence too on that substructure, not without the immense approbation mixed with admiration of the superintendents, not ignorant of what and how great men they were, who lowered themselves to these humble and laborious works for the love of God. Things now being composed, and the bridge adorned, on the 4th of June ^a of the year 1367, the Pontifical trireme drawing near the port, the crowds are bidden to withdraw, and to leave a free space for the Pontiff descending; to John and his companions it was permitted to remain, as men to be honored above the common.

[295] whom they receive with pious acclamations, These, girding their foreheads with olive garlands, and carrying olive branches in their hands, thinking that they could more festively congratulate and applaud his happy arrival in no other way, than if by a sonorous entreaty they should indicate the joy arising from piety, falling on their knees all together persevered to cry out: "May Jesus Christ live, and may Pope Urban, the vicar of Christ, live."

[296] and are admitted to the kissing of his feet and other tokens of benevolence; Approaching thence nearer, they were admitted to the kissing of his feet, the Pontiff himself assenting and flattering with the cheerfulness of his countenance: and although the crowded nobility of every rank and order, hemming in his sides, made straits on every side, nevertheless for the poor of Christ a free access from the pressure was procured; nay rather, an honor reserved for the chief of the great was granted to two of them, that with their right hands they should sustain the shafts of the hanging canopy, which overshadowed Urban, carried on a horse, while he was led into the city: which pledge of singular honor was matter of the discourses which through the mouths of the court and the city were rolled that day, and matter of the letters which, concerning the Pontiff's arrival and the magnificence of the pomp, were written through the various parts of Europe…

[297] Further, so great through these days was the concourse of legates and Prelates, but since in so great a concourse of nobles so great the throng of magnates and the rest of the nobles seeking the ears of the Pontiff, that it was not permitted to lend them at once to Columbinus. Meanwhile, while he awaits an opportune time for approach, he set about to meet the chief men, whom he vehemently desired as patrons and favorers of his cause, and to make them more certain of his affairs, that is, those proper to the divine glory. First of all he visited the Cardinal of Avignon, the brother by blood of Urban himself, to whom, since the man's sanctity had before been known by fame only, he looked upon him returning with most willing eyes, and, his institute of life being praised, and his labors so fruitful to the Christian commonwealth, he most courteously promised his help and effort in aiding the congregation.

[298] It befell him to experience the same courtesy from Lord Francis Bruno of Florence, they could not conveniently address the Pontiff, to whom notable wisdom and probity had won a place with the supreme Pontiff made a place among his secretaries. Nor did the so prompt benignity of the two chief men bring John a small consolation; and he was wont thereafter to compare the Cardinal to a white lamb, whose gentleness is noted among living things, and its innocent simplicity. It was not permitted, through the straits of time and the number of occupations and persons besieging the court, for Columbinus conveniently to converse with the supreme Pontiff, and to treat of his affairs. But this difficulty turned out well, which was less in facility and abundance of colloquies and benefits, which the discourse prepares to pursue as consequent thereafter.

[299] Urban, having stayed no more than two days at Corneto, set out on his journey to Viterbo. they accompany him departing from Corneto to Viterbo, As he departed a numerous cohort of nobles with the court household followed him, to whom John and his companions, thinking it by no means unbecoming to associate themselves, like servants at his feet, followed the Pontiff riding with hastened step and were nowhere absent from his stirrup, however he hastened. And although the pious Pastor admonished again and again that they should spare their weariness and running, Francis Vincent, nearer than the rest, yet answered: "Holy Father, to me indeed it comes as a great convenience and delight, not from afar, but nearest to Your Holiness to walk, that I may more promptly hear and serve, nay even touch you": amid which words, as he fell to the ground, and pressed to bring his mouth to the sacred feet, the reins being drawn back for a while, he indulged him to kiss them.

[300] And not long after, having entered the pools of the watery way, he strives in vain to keep from his side the utmost fringes of his flowing garments with his right hand, on which journey the Pope orders one of them to be summoned,

lifting them, lest they be wetted by the sprinkling. And that these services of veneration were by no means vain for deserving well of Urban's mind, the reward soon rendered declared: for when they had come to Toscanella (a noble town, distant from Corneto about twelve thousand paces), before all things he orders Vincent to be summoned, who forthwith, betaking himself to the convent of St. Francis, destined for the Pontifical lodging, is led into the inmost conclave and is set before the Pontiff, at whose feet, that he might more reverently offer kisses, having laid the little mantle from his shoulders, he spreads it on the ground and presses his knee, while he is imparted the blessing.

[301] whom he examined concerning the new kind of life and institute, Delighted with which simplicity and submission,

Urban asks more about his kind of life, what the institute recently introduced is, what the end at which it aims? Why so neglected and vile a habit? and things akin to these; to which Francis answered one by one, but succinctly and vigorously, and that the purpose in general was to follow the counsels and examples of Christ the Lord, to carry the mortification of the cross in their bodies, to profit the Church and the faithful, and in all things to depend on the nod and arbitration of Christ's Vicar on earth, whose authority is the norm of their discipline, and the form of their laws his good pleasure.

[302] in which he disapproved nothing The Pontiff had nothing which he disapproved, to whom nothing seemed not congruous to Evangelical perfection, nothing discordant from the right rule of manners: and although he saw them to have undertaken many arduous and difficult things, which could seem to surpass human weakness, yet that all could be kept by those who brought a generous mind to the institute, was established by the experiment of many, who through the thorny path, as if strewn with roses, run harmlessly and pleasantly.

[303] besides the too vile habit, One thing only he confessed was by no means approved by him, namely their too abject and thin habit, by which neither the head nor the feet are defended from the frequent injuries of the season and the offenses of the roads, nor does it sufficiently befit the condition of those wearing it: for almost all of them were illustrious in nobility or in letters, and now gathered into a religious company, from whose decorum it would thereafter be less fitting to go about among men with bared heads and legs; that it was better and more honorable to put on full-length garments, and, if the soles seemed too delicate, to protect them at least with wooden shoes, whose burden is a kind of penance, and a protection from the incursions of the roads often bloodying the flesh.

[304] which he wished to be changed into a more decorous one, To which Francis: that he received his sayings as oracles of Christ speaking through the mouth of his Vicar; that all things private and public of their congregation were subject to his most wise decrees; that nothing more desirable or more honorable befell him, than that they should use that form of habit which the supreme Prelate of the Church should designate, which the genius of no man inferior to him should invent; that he therefore gave immortal thanks in the name of all his companions for his paternal care and providence; that all were without doubt ready to change their cloaks into more decent tunics, to protect their feet with wooden shoes [b], and to execute promptly whatever Your Holiness should think good. And the words of Francis pleased in the sight of the Prince, as golden apples on silver beds.

[305] [to whose judgment, with the Pontiff's decision, blessed Columbinus plainly acquiesced with his companions,] When Francis had related these things to Columbinus and his companions, they rejoiced vehemently, and with great reverence submitted their pleasures to the Pontifical counsels, as if they had been given by Christ himself. And when they began to treat of the expenses necessary for buying the cloth, and wished poverty kept in repair in this provision, the Pontiff ordered it to be announced to them, not expecting it, that they should lay aside all solicitude, which he wished reserved to himself. Nor was he unmindful of his promise, which soon it will be established that he a little after fulfilled.

[306] who at this time foreknew his impending death, Here could be recalled the prediction of his death, in which the light of divine revelation seemed to shine forth not obscurely. But because it was perhaps only a certain presentiment and presage akin to prophecy, it is a religious scruple for me to assert uncertain things for certain, and to give to prophecy what it itself would reject as alien. Columbinus had departed from Siena to go to meet Urban the Fifth, coming from Gaul to Corneto, as I remember to have mentioned above, and on the way wrote letters to Blasia his wife, in which he warned that the time of his dissolution was at hand, and that she would not see his face any more he openly signified.

[307] And the death that followed a little after on the journey proved the truth of his saying; or at least seems to have presaged although that he was conscious neither of the hour nor of the day is an argument, the great desire, often declared in words, of again seeing the most beloved sisters of St. Abundius, and, amid their prayers to the Creator, flying away: so that therefore it is free to judge that by the same spirit as the Apostle he foresaw and foretold his death near to him, which labors, hardships, his age worn with dire afflictions by no means persuaded to be further off. But if in a doubtful case you prefer to follow the part and opinion more honorable to the Saint, and contend that he prophesied this also, you will have me rather a commender of the praise conferred, than a pertinacious defender of my own opinion [c].

NOTES.

CHAPTER XXII.

The false accusation of blessed John and his companions, their innocence found after examination, the same form of garments given to all by the Roman Pontiff, their pious manner of living approved, and other signs of paternal benevolence shown to them. The little skiff of Columbinus was plowing the marine waves with favorable winds, when, a tempest suddenly arising, it began to be tossed, Columbinus and his companions are charged with heresy, and to be dashed against the rocks of biting tongues: for when it was noticed by some of the chief of the cenobites that new men with a new habit were rising into the form of a religious Order, and were daily becoming more gracious with Urban and his brother the Cardinal and the other magnates than the old ones, and besides were rendered venerable by the esteem of sanctity among the multitude, whether envy putting forward the veil of zeal, or the reason of duty objecting to conscience, they first greatly suspected, then charged them with the heresy of the Fraticelli ^a, not long before condemned, with their head Hermann [b], as if it were still secretly fostered in the remnants collected by John, like fire wrapped in the ashes of hypocrisy.

[309] and are made suspect to many, And, such is the force of calumny, especially if the gravity of the accusers gives credence of sincerity, at the beginning the fame of the innocent was blackened, when benevolence turned into the suspicions and hatreds of many: so that to those to whom before their converse and familiarity was a delight, it began to be a trouble and weariness; and the more honorable each reckoned himself in the court, the more earnestly he turned away and shunned men laboring under the esteem of heresy: the common people too, more prone to petulance, did not abstain from curses, and rent the undeserving with revilings.

[310] which calumny the Cardinal of Avignon desired to still by silence; The Cardinal of Avignon indeed, such was his prudence and judgment, believing the crowd less than himself, kept his constancy in loving, and numbered the accusations among the lies proceeding from malevolence and envy: of which opinion he was not ignorant that the Pontiff too was, and therefore, far from the tumult of tribunals, he would have preferred the matter to be dissembled in silence, fearing lest, if the ignorant and unlettered men, such as in that number were by no means lacking, being questioned by the examiners about doctrine, should blurt out something absurd, the ignorance of malice and the ardor of preaching the word of God to the peoples should be attributed to rashness.

[311] but the Pontiff ordered them to be lawfully examined before a judge, But it seemed otherwise to the Pontiff, namely that by the legitimate paths of law an investigation of the cause should be made, whether that the handle of detraction might be cut off from the calumniators, ready to twist dissimulation to a depraved sense, and to ascribe impunity to the power of the Prince, not to the innocence of the accused; or because he did not doubt that from this cloud of judgments a clear light would come to the name and fame of the upright men. To the Cardinal of Marseilles therefore, once a great professor of theology in the Dominican family, the discussion of the cause is committed, that he himself might institute the form of a tribunal, in which seriously and diligently the truth might be investigated, and a free excursion be permitted to the accusation and defense [c].

[312] Thus on the morrow, being called before him, the inquisitor and the public scribe appear, to whom they rendered so solid and sincere an account of their faith, of whom the former by various interrogations tests their sentiments concerning the dogmas of faith; the latter refers their responses into the records: each cannot sufficiently admire the promptitude and candor of doctrine of those answering, which was by no means expected. There was no perplexity in their sayings, no discrepancy from the sacred canons or the dogmas of the Catholic religion; but besides a singular splendor of knowledge shone forth, which would betray not obscurely the gleaming sun, the illuminator of minds.

[313] so that he declared them altogether innocent Wherefore the Cardinal, set over the judgment, not only openly deemed it his duty to pronounce them exceedingly Catholic and upright; but also, rising from his chair, glad he went into their embraces, and wished on the same day and the next to have them as guests in his house, and to deal most familiarly with them, whom he held persuaded, by tokens by no means ambiguous, to be familiar to the supreme Godhead and to the heavenly ones: and this course and signification of benevolence held all that time in which they were kept at Viterbo, nor was it thereafter interrupted by absence, when both had to depart to their own homes from Viterbo, the bond of love keeping guard and, in the distance of places, coupling their minds, on this side by the eminent sanctity of the servants of God, well perceived by that nobility, on that by the memory of the benefits which with full hand into the bosom of the poor of Christ the first See and the surrounding court had heaped.

[314] For the rest, when it was announced to the Pontiff by the Cardinal, and the Pontiff ordered garments to be liberally bought for them, what honorable issue that whole inquiry had obtained, he himself and the Cardinal his brother were heaped with incredible gladness; and that by some deed they might declare their best opinion of them, straightway white cloth was bought by the pontifical command, as much as was enough for clothing, not only those who were present, but also all the absent ones gathered by Columbinus himself, whose number had now nearly reached seventy, that as many very long tunics with cowls of the same color, and as many girdles for the girding might be prepared: which liberality, breathed upon by the blessing of the first Prelate of the Church, rendered the form of the Jesuatic habit auspicious and fortunate, as enjoined and approved by him to whom God gave his own place on earth, so that it is a crime to disapprove things approved by his reckoning, or to loose things bound by his bond.

[315] But because the garment of a simple tunic seemed too defective and humble, as blessed John indicates to his absent companions in a letter. it came into the mind of the Cardinal of Avignon to superadd a cloak to the garments, and, the counsel being communicated with the Pontiff, five and thirty pairs of over-garments of dark color verging into tawny were made, such as afterward endured even to our age: and of these their own part too was transmitted to the absent brothers with a letter written by Columbinus to this effect: "Most beloved brothers, I send you a habit, designated for our company by the supreme Pontiff, bought by his munificence, given by his hand and imparted with a blessing; whoever of you retains the purpose of persevering for the whole time of his life, the old one being laid aside, which he received from me, let him put on the new: he who has not this mind, but wavers and sticks doubtful, let him not attempt to put it on. If he do otherwise, and act dissemblingly, woe to him whoever he is, and again I say woe to him," etc.

[316] And perhaps the threat sought those who had suffered themselves to be snatched by the storm of persecution to the waves of the world, The inconstancy of some being punished, to be miserably sunk by shipwreck. Of one indeed a deplorable end is recorded, who by the evil example of desertion had rendered some of the more spirited prone to defection. But heavenly wrath did not leave rashness unpunished: for there followed deeds so evil and deformed, that they were to be chastised by the executioner's noose: and the eyes of the people of Arezzo beheld hanging from the gibbet Billiottus (as he was called) with fourteen other malefactors, whose throats had been broken in the public square: to pass over meanwhile in silence the misfortunes of the others who had basely fallen away from what they had begun.

[317] The good Father was greatly anguished by the lapses of those degenerate men, who deserted the pious company in the time of vexations, who in the time of tribulation withdrew; but at last he rested in the bosom of divine providence, whose judgments were always hidden as well as just, and to be revered not only in the weakness of men, but also in the falls of angels. And to the present matter he thought pertained a past prophecy of Nerius of Città di Castello, a man known among his own by the fame of holiness, by whom he remembered it once said, that by his companions a deep river was to be crossed, and by the waters of afflictions the constancy of each was to be proved, and that those who were of a strong and generous heart would reach the bank unharmed; but those who were timid and languid would make shipwreck in the midst of the waves.

[318] There was added another vexation from certain external theologians of no mean authority in the city, one of which, again arising, the Cardinal of Marseilles extinguished whose lust was to seek a knot in a bulrush, and to involve and assail with quibbles the reason of the poverty which they had undertaken. But this little cloud too was easily dispersed by the splendor of the wisdom in which the Cardinal of Marseilles was eminent: for, those masters who had moved the strife being summoned to him, he ordered them to bring forward the arguments by which they were moved to bring it; and when he had demonstrated the light ones by the opposition of solider ones, he imposed silence by the power in which he prevailed: then, turned to the secretary of the Cardinal of Avignon, "These," he said, "servants of God I will love even to the altars and death, and, as far as I can, when it shall be needful, defend." And he confirmed his sayings by services, among which that not the least, that he did not cease to extol with praises within and without the court, and called them apostolic and holy men, whom God had destined for the good of the Church…

[319] That no suspicion of the unjust accusation might remain, the Cardinals, That no vestige of the branded calumny might remain for the future, they vied to heap encomiums and honors on Columbinus, who could have carried them off, Urban and the Cardinals of Avignon and Marseilles before others; and that to the daily and private ones public testimonies also of the best esteem might be added, the Cardinal of Avignon persuaded, on the festal day of the birth of the Forerunner of the Lord, that, according to the custom of religious, two by two they should betake themselves to the Pontifical chapel, and at the appointed place be present at the solemn sacrifice, where they might conveniently enjoy the sight of the ceremonies.

[320] and other chief men affect Columbinus and his companions with singular honor; After these, wishing to depart, he retained them with him and, having led them into the palace, altogether compelled them to dine with him, and took so great delight from that converse, that a little after he judged that the feast of Saints Peter and Paul would be celebrated less devoutly and less pleasantly, unless again they were summoned to the sacrifice to be offered by the Pontiff, and, that being finished, were received at a banquet in his house. Emulating his courtesy, other chief men frequently dealt with John or one of his companions, anticipated them with honor, commended themselves to their prayers, and performed whatever other offices might cast a bridle on the detraction of the slanderers, and be to the common people a proof of innocence and an incitement of love.

[321] nay rather the supreme Pontiff himself And so, free and pure from all stain in its cradle, the Order transmitted its decorum to posterity; but for guarding it Columbinus sufficiently provided, that there was need of some stable form and prescript of living approved and confirmed by the Apostolic See. Wherefore both by himself and through the Cardinal of Avignon he began reverently to solicit the Pontiff, that he would deign, in a matter of the greatest moment, to be at hand with the benignity of his counsel and favor, so that, as their manner of dressing, so also their manner of living might be believed to have had its origin from heaven, if it should have the sanction from the Doorkeeper of heaven at the same time.

[322] approves and praises his new congregation, The Pontiff complied with the most honorable petition, and an answer was rendered through the same Cardinal of Avignon according to their wish; and this was singularly placed among the admonitions, that they should not thereafter run in troops through the world, because a multitude on journeys is liable to several inconveniences, and cannot altogether lack some confusion: that free faculty be made to them, whether within the walls or precincts of cities and towns, or outside in the open, of erecting houses, in which a certain number of companions might be nourished according to their own arbitration and convenience, so that, using its own laws and discipline, after the manner of the other cenobites, it might happily grow up, increase into thousands for the salvation of neighbors and the splendor of the Church, and prosperously endure to the glory of God and of the Savior Jesus

Christ.

[323] These and similar things were accepted with immense thanksgiving and joy, from whom, when according to the counsel of the bishop of Città di Castello and afterward observed with the most sought zeal. And although it came into his mind besides to treat of privileges, which could easily be obtained from a benevolent Pastor, nevertheless the more prudent of his friends judged that he should abstain from the petition at present, among whom Butius, bishop of Città di Castello [d] (as it behooved to have mentioned above), by repeated letters signified that it was more advisable, and more congruous to the modesty which they professed, to lack prerogatives for the present, and to abound in the abundance of virtues, which would be a safe protection of their society then nascent, and a fortification against external assaults.

[324] The counsel pleased Columbinus, who, although he held it among his wishes to confer with his splendid patron and sincere lover, in person, the thoughts of his mind of great weight, [then judged that nothing further was to be sought by Columbinus, his blessing being obtained,] yet, the coming which he awaited being daily deferred, and then, on account of his occupations, utterly despaired of, resolved to depart from Viterbo with his own: and that they might depart more honorably, clad in the garments which they had lately received from the Pontiff, in a composed band through the public squares they proceeded to kiss his feet, by whom, admitted with great courtesy and imparted an auspicious blessing, they heard many things by which their pious institute was praised, and perseverance in guarding it commended.

[325] He moreover ordered, for those departing, that for a viaticum, and for buying cloth, money be supplied, [he bids farewell to the Cardinals and his other benefactors, about to return to Siena.] which to spurn they thought a crime, as given by the supreme Prelate of the Church, to whom to object the title of poverty in an untimely refusal could seem an excuse. Having afterward saluted the Cardinals of Avignon and Marseilles, and also the other prelates whose benevolence and patronage they had experienced, in a band, after the manner of suppliants, blessing the name of the Lord, they set out on their journey through the chief street of the city. When to see them a copious crowd of the people poured itself forth, and several testified their grief at the departure by tears, having prayed safety to all, they enter the way which leads to Siena.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The return of blessed John Columbinus to the city of Siena, his illness on the journey, his pious profession before receiving the holy Viaticum, and his last admonitions to his disciples. The Blessed one, about to return from Viterbo to Siena, All things for which he had come to Viterbo being accomplished according to his wish and beyond his wish, having set about to return to Siena by postliminy, he is recalled to a better country from the midst of the journey. On the same day on which he had set foot out of Viterbo, on the 22nd of July in the year 1367, he came to the lake of Bolsena ^a, to which the sanctity of the time and place invited; for the inhabitants were celebrating the feast of St. Magdalene, to whom a temple dedicated, adjoined to their house, the nuns had; and he turned aside the more willingly, the more propense zeal and cult with which the holy Penitent, as a chief patroness, he had long been wont to follow, even for this reason, that he thought her propitious especially toward those who, emerging from the mire of sins, commend themselves to her patronage: and therefore he desired to be part of that solemnity, wont to be repeated yearly.

[327] on the journey he is seized with a fever, There, amid the divine hymnody, he began to be tried by a little fever, which held the rest of the day and the whole following night, and thereafter by its increments prevailed. Meanwhile counsel was taken by his companions of changing his place, and, most conveniently and slowly to convey him to Acquapendente [b], distant by no long interval, where both a more salubrious air, and a richer supply of physicians and medicines was hoped would profit his soundness.

[328] which, while it gradually grows, Thither therefore he is carried by his sad companions; he is received in hospitality by an honorable citizen, Ambrose son of John, and is tended with that diligence which it was fair to expect from most loving sons toward a most holy father. But the disease prevailed over all medicines and however most exact care, and so weighed him down, that it left utterly no hope of health, but could not diminish the gladness of his soul exulting at his death.

[329] about to be fortified with the holy Viaticum To the failing man there was no solicitude of the body; the desire of his mind, turned to heavenly things, was immense—the hour of dissolution and the migration into the eternal tabernacles, into which, that he might be led by the coming Lord, he prepared himself to meet him by a piacular confession and the receiving of the holy Bread, performed with an incredible sense of piety, which an unwonted deed rendered memorable: for when the priest, with the pomp accustomed to the faithful, had brought the venerable mysteries to the lying man, and the crown of accompaniers stood around, holding lighted tapers in their hands, and attending to the prayers wont to be premised; behold, suddenly the sick man casts himself from the bed, and falls on his knees.

[330] he orders a disciple, once a notary, to draw up an instrument, Then, a girdle being hung on his throat, he suppliantly demands that so little a space be indulged to him, while certain things be dictated, by which his last will, as by a testament, might be declared; at the same time he beseeches Benedict de Pace of Città di Castello, whom we said above acted as notary in the court of the bishop, to take down what is dictated, and to record it in the records, no otherwise than once he had been wont to draw up testaments or codicils and to fortify them with a seal.

[331] The upright disciple complied with the Master asking unwonted things, in which, before the most august Sacrament of the Eucharist and drew up the testament, as the testator dictated, whose chief part it seemed worth the trouble to weave in here, which will be no less fruitful than pleasant to the reader: "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. Amen. In the year from Christ's nativity 1367, in the fifth indiction, Urban the Fifth governing the Church, on the 26th day of July. Be it known to all who shall inspect these records, that the just and venerable man John, son of Peter Columbini, of Siena, sick indeed in body, but sound in mind, on bended knees, a girdle bound on his neck testifying the malefactor, before the most august Sacrament, which the priest holds grasped in his hand, called by name John de Sclavo, rector of the church of St. Angel of the market of Acquapendente, these things, which are here written by me, before witnesses uttered.

[332] 'I, John, in the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess emits a profession of the orthodox faith, that I have been ungrateful for the benefits received from God, and am the worst of all sinners and worthy of hell: nevertheless, recollecting in mind his great mercy, I hope to obtain pardon and eternal life. It is true, and in faith of the truth I profess, that I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and I hold for certain whatever the holy Roman Church holds, and Urban its Pastor, its Cardinals, brothers in the Lord, and its other prelates.

[333] 'I testify likewise that from the time when I began to profess poverty, he acknowledges the authority of the Roman Church, I chose this institute of life to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, the exaltation of holy mother Church, of the most blessed Pope Urban the Fifth, of his brother Cardinals, of the other prelates and pastors, to whom hitherto I have shown myself obsequious and even to death will show myself, as to those bearing the place of the Lord on earth: for this is the way which leads to life; and with me it is certain, that all who turn aside from it and deny that their definitions and decrees have flowed from God through the infusion of the Holy Spirit, and therefore who dare to violate them, are not to be numbered among the faithful, nor held for Catholics; nor is it to be doubted that those who spontaneously fall into these absurdities are members divided from Christ.

[334] 'For this cause, if perhaps anything at any time has been sinned by me ignorantly, he commends to his companions a constant veneration of the same Church, in word or deed repugnant to the will of those Pastors, I grieve vehemently, and suppliantly demand pardon and penance from you, most excellent John, priest of God, although I am conscious to myself of no fault of that kind voluntarily committed. Moreover my soul and body I cast into the bosom of holy mother Church and of its pastors, and hence to me a great confidence of obtaining eternal life; but to my brothers and companions, both present and absent, I would greatly have it commended, that as hitherto they have kept the faith due to the Church and its Pastors, so henceforth they may firmly adhere to them: for if they should suffer themselves to be torn away from them, there would be no doubt but that they would be torn from Christ.

[335] 'Finally, because the power of envy lies open,

I hold it a matter of conscience to testify to its defense and undoubtedly to assert, and finally he praises the nuns of St. Abundius. that the nuns of the monastery of St. Abundius, situated not far from the city of Siena, in which I have rejoiced to place my daughter and several of my kinswomen the virgins, and where I and my companions have frequently dwelt not without fruit, which from their teachings and examples we have drawn: these, I say, I dare to affirm are to be reckoned among the best of religious virgins, truly most Christian, and lovers of holy mother Church, most honorable, if any others in the world, given to penance, zealous for charity, liberal in alms, most poor in spirit, having nothing of their own with them, although they abound in common goods.'"

[336] The sick man, having devoutly received the Body of Christ, All which were sealed with clauses to be appended at the end according to the prescript of the laws, the witnesses being called one by one, and the records fortified with a seal, as if a testament had been made [c], in which an inheritance and legacies to be divided are left. Then, his eyes and mind being turned to the most holy Host, he received it with that reverence, submission, and ardor, which elicited from the bystanders tears, flowing from a tender sense of piety. And indeed rest and treatment in the same place seemed to befit more the gravity of the disease; but a vehement desire of again seeing the handmaids of Christ, dear to him, the nuns of St. Abundius, and of sending forth his spirit among them, impelled him to the journey, and that the peril impending from the moving could be easily averted by the care and dexterity of his companions, easily persuaded him.

[337] he is carried by his companions to another village; On the morning therefore of the 27th day of July, the companions, having departed from Acquapendente, carry the pious burden of their sick Parent to the village which they commonly call the abbey of San Salvatore [d], and lay it down in the house of Naldus de Vannis, his old familiar and host of his own men passing that way. There accompanied the noble bearers several of the inhabitants, who wherever they had to pass, eagerly flowed together, that they might enjoy the sight of the Man of God, known everywhere in that region by the fame of his sanctity, and, if in any way they could, help the sick man.

[338] where again by his disciple he orders a legitimate instrument to be drawn up, In that dwelling he could not but experience both the benignity of his host and the charity of his ministering companions; but the fever increasing and the vigor of his strength remitting, they announce that death is near, and that not so much of a monastery, as of paradise, was to be thought. Nor yet could he utterly forget it in death, because he wished his body to be committed to burial in the same. Again therefore he summons Benedict de Pace, and asks that to the now-written and sealed records he add these besides, by which it might be established in what place he, living, chose his tomb, lest it be free for any of mortals, according to his own pleasure, to designate another. Those were written, like the former which we recited, the law of the scribes being kept exactly in distinctly setting forth the circumstances of time, place, witnesses, notary, which in the copies of the vernacular tongue are minutely written [e].

[339] in which he prescribes the place and manner of his burial. But the sum of them is, first indeed that it is his will that his corpse be laid in the ground near the wall of the cloister of the monastery of St. Abundius, on that side where the exit lies open into the court from the gate of that garden, which place, exposed to the feet of those treading on it, was an interpreter of the will of the man continually desiring humility of soul, triumphing in the funeral of his body to be buried after the manner of the poor. Then he charged that the corpse of the dead man, wrapped in a hempen covering, his hands bound behind his back, placed on an ass, be carried thither. And he indeed desired, by a sacrifice consonant to his first conversion, to work his own despising and the contempt of the world even in his last moments; yet it pleased God to render his tomb glorious, whose death was precious in his sight.

[340] He admonishes his companions standing by, For he who had followed his Savior in his life by doing and suffering hard and harsh things for him, did not forget to imitate him in death, both by leaving salutary admonitions to his brothers, and, the hour of his death drawing near, by addressing the companions standing around from his little bed with a plainly heavenly oration almost thus: "Most beloved fathers and brothers in Christ Jesus. Not obscurely, I think, you perceive the will of God calling us to himself, in which it is fair for us to acquiesce, as in one having the dominion of life and death, and disposing all things with the highest justice and sanctity.

[341] 'Do not think that a prophecy has been told you: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered: that after my death they should obey Francis Vincent, for I neither arrogate to myself the name or office of a shepherd, who neither know how to rule others and myself deserve to be corrected, although you, for your humility and modesty, have patiently tolerated me: and moreover it ought to be a solace to you, that there are among you several whom you can have as sufficient for me with your profit: and it pleases me to name one, Francis Vincent, whom, as first in seniority, so also in prudence and love, a father and master I esteem able to show himself quite fit. Hearken to him as to a teacher and follow him as leader, by whom through the straight ways of virtue and perfection you will be led.

[342] 'As to what pertains to me, I beseech you, as many as are present, he asks pardon for his errors, and through you those who are absent I ask, most sweet sons, that for the love of the Lord Jesus you pardon my errors, if I happened at any time to correct anyone too harshly, or, receiving him more gently than was fitting, omitted to amend him, being an unlettered and ignorant man. If by word or deed I offended anyone, or otherwise sinned, I am not ashamed to accuse myself, and pardon from you through Jesus Christ crucified I humbly beg, and would beg more gladly prostrate at your feet, if through the languor of my failing spirit it were granted to rise and to fall down.

[343] 'I beseech you also as vehemently as I can from my soul, and to them mutual charity, humility, that you love one another, because it is the precept of the Lord. Let none among you desire to be greater; whoever shall desire to be greater, will be less, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Assiduously before the eyes of your mind let the life of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles be present, and to this diligently apply yourselves, that you express it in manners and imitation: for doing this you will truly be Jesuati. Let all your working be directed to the praise of Jesus Christ, and let his name not depart from your mouth and heart, even when an exterior occupation detains you. I pray you moreover, that you persevere unto the end, not failing: for those who shall have persevered shall be saved. Be strong soldiers of Christ and generous horsemen, and, fortified with his grace, fight against the temptations of the ancient serpent, the world, and the flesh, certain that he is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you can bear,' etc."

[344] He added more to inculcate these same things, that they might cling more firmly to their mind; and inculcates other exercises of the virtues. such as the acts of sorrow to be frequently excited from the memory of sins, a right intention to be procured in any work, the last things of men to be more often recollected, the holy Sacraments to be duly performed, and especially on the more solemn feasts never to be intermitted, and other things of that kind, in explaining which prolixly it is clearly established that the vigor of his mind commanded the sickness of his body, and that the love of God and neighbor in the failing of his strength by no means failed.

[345] For after the discourse held in common, his eyes being turned to Francis, he thus addresses him: "My most beloved brother in Christ. It is not hidden from you how long and how sincerely we have cherished one another with mutual charity, not on account of the affinity of blood Then to Francis Vincent which intervened between us, but on account of the love of Jesus Christ alone, who joined us in affection. Wherefore, by the love of the same Jesus Christ crucified, with the greater ardor that I can, I pray that you have commended to you our brothers and sons, whom God delivered into our hands, after my death.

[346] 'You well know with what great confidence they entrusted themselves to our care; namely thinking that we were true servants of God and faithful ministers of Christ, all things which they had in the world or could have, even their parents and kindred, being left behind, they put off their own wills, and submitted them to our arbitration and command; and therefore they bound us to love them, and to have care of them, no otherwise than of ourselves, sedulously. Nor is there doubt that before God's tribunal we are held to render account of them, when the time of judgment shall come. I indeed enter the way of all flesh; but to you I delegate my place, that you may be to them as a good father, and shepherd, instructing by example and doctrine, cherishing with courtesy, comforting with exhortation, that, the divine grace breathing, through adverse and prosperous things they may be brought to the port of salvation.'"

[347] who asks him that he obtain for him a speedy death from God. To which Francis, weeping, "O sweet," he said, "and beloved Father, your honeyed words are arrows striking my heart; not indeed because I take up reluctantly the care of our poor brothers and companions: for I love them in charity, and greatly desire to serve them; but because without you and without your most sweet converse life will be to me more bitter than death. Besides that I am not ignorant how unequal my strength is to this burden, and how modest a fruit is to be hoped from my governance. Therefore by that love with which you have hitherto followed me, most earnestly

I ask of you, Father, that by the grace in which you prevail with Jesus Christ, you obtain for me from him a swift migration from this world into eternity." And when he heaped supplications upon prayers, he obtained this, that the dying man promised his effort and intercession with God for attaining that which he so greatly desired [f].

[348] After this, certain things being secretly indicated to the priest, Then, John de Sclavo the priest being called apart to him, he asks the bystanders to withdraw a while, lest they hear what he judges should be committed to the secret of the ears, and opened to one alone. And it was a conjecture not without reason, that future outcomes of things were opened to the priest, received by revelation on this condition, that to no mortal, except to Lady Paula, abbess of St. Abundius, he should make them manifest. When the private colloquy ceased, the bystanders hastened to return to the bed of the lying man, and although, the body failing, death impended, yet, his limbs growing cold, the ardor of his soul boiled in his breast, and compelled him to repeat sacred colloquies with his beloved sons.

[349] before Francis and his other companions he repeats his last admonitions, And to Francis indeed he again earnestly commends the surviving little family one by one; but the rest to patience and to the love of God and neighbor, to perseverance he exhorts; again he begs pardon for all his errors, and to all who are or shall be of the congregation, the solemn sign of the most holy Trinity being recited, prays well. Amid these things the grief which raged in the hearts of his sons filled their faces with tears, the chamber with sighs and sobs; which was the cause that again he loosed his now dry and languid tongue into words, by which most placidly he might console the sad, and, for tolerating the troubles of the present life, might animate them by the hope and rewards of the eternal.

[350] And because, where the heart is, thither the tongue often recurs, the commendation of the monastery of St. Abundius being renewed, among which he again praises the nuns of St. Abundius. he praised the nuns profusely, not for this, that they should contract too much familiarity with them; but that they should be at hand to the needy, should serve those demanding their help; for the rest, that rarely and gravely one should deal even with women consecrated to God, he admonished in this last discourse. At last he persuaded Francis to choose the same place of burial with him [g], that those whose souls the spirit of poverty and the love of Christ had coupled in life, their bodies might by no means be separated in death: and, a promise being given by the mourning Francis, he repeated his blessing, and ceased to speak and to live among mortals, about to live forever with the immortals.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The pious death of blessed John, the indications of sanctity that followed after death, the honorable obsequies, and the burial in the monastery of St. Abundius. The thirty-first day of the month of July in the year 1367 was the last of Columbinus's life, and the first of eternity, In the year 1367, on the 31st of July the last of one that shall want it. The malignity of the fever had exercised his patience from the festal day of St. Magdalene, as has been narrated, up to the end of the month, never intermitting; which whole interval was given by the sick man to preparation for his departure from the Egypt of miseries, for which for many years he had never been unprepared. He had no solicitude about his little body, save perhaps that it should even then be ill-treated, the whole treatment being left to another's charity, which could not be sparing where the charity of most loving sons abounded.

[352] fortified with the last sacraments, he dies piously, Being now fortified with the remaining Sacraments, with the holy oil by which the soul is strengthened for the decisive struggle, he wished to be anointed, always present to himself and in full senses, as when he was in good health. He asks the priest to recite the accustomed prayers of the Church, an opportune support to the departing, and to run through the history of the Lord's passion: which while they are performed, far from all rattle which is wont to precede the mortal end, amid sweet gaspings and aspirations, amid the honeyed names, Jesus, Mary, at those words INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMEND MY SPIRIT, most placidly he fell asleep in the Lord.

[353] which death various signs of sanctity followed. There followed signs of salvation and of a certain divinity, the serene image of his face, a color above human, bright, inhering in his countenance, his lips gently smiling, the whole appearance of his mouth as of a soul exulting with gladness and congratulating its own glory; a wondrous fragrance besides breathing from the remains of mortality and blowing through the chamber; an odor emanating from the garments and other things touched by the living man, and, what the household wondered more at, the very moisture instilled into the vessel was found more fragrant than opobalsams fifteen days after his departure ^a: the series of the deed is narrated by others; for me it is enough to have modestly and briefly noted the ray of the divine sun, betraying itself in the vileness of the excrement, that the reader may learn to acknowledge the profuse benignity of God toward his friends, and to admire it even in mud and mire.

[354] His sad companions At those so manifest and so conspicuous signs of the heavenly favors, the companions, dismayed with grief, could not but rejoice; yet not so far as to wipe away all the force of grief, or be able to stop the impulse of their tears. The reins had to be altogether loosed to them, and nature, deploring its own misfortune in the dead Parent, had to be indulged for the time.

Francis indeed the pitiable wailing and lamentation almost deprived of life: he had no consolation, or other relief of the grief oppressing his heart, than to rush into the embraces of the dead man, to cling to his face, to kiss his hands and feet; and, as if he wished to be buried with him, he could not be drawn away from his beloved, nor make an end to his groans and overflowing weeping…

[355] [they deliberate whether the funeral is to be prepared in the manner which the Blessed one had prescribed;] When enough had been given to grief and tears, they had to think about the funeral, and straightway there was doubt whether it should be prepared according to that form which a little before, while he lived, the desire of suffering and the love of humility had delineated as abject and despicable, and which he himself had willed to be immutable by the strength of a testamentary document; or rather it were fair that he be carried out with that decorum which was owed to a man of illustrious lineage, more illustrious in virtues, most illustrious in sanctity and miracles.

[356] but by common counsel they resolve that it must be carried out honorably, Their opinions therefore being compared among themselves, and those of other grave men also being explored, in this all agreed, that the submission of his generous mind was indeed greatly to be praised, meditating to continue in his corpse the triumphs which he had, while surviving, celebrated over the pride and vanity of the world; but that the imprudence of the executors of the testament would be condemned, if a body worthy of the stars and heaven, the most pure habitation of the Holy Spirit, with hands bound behind the back, placed on a beast, were carried out.

[357] More honorable counsel therefore was taken, and it was resolved in common, that a chest in the manner of a bier be joined together from boards, and in it that holy deposit be laid, [and thus they translate the holy body with funeral pomp to the monastery of St. Abundius.] which, placed on their shoulders, the burden being divided by turns, singing Psalms alternately, they should carry to St. Abundius: of which deliberation the rumor being spread, there ran together forthwith in troops men and women of every age and condition, brought kisses to the hands of the dead man, recorded his deeds, proclaimed him thrice holy. The abbot himself of San Salvatore and the chief men of the people, in the public name, gave wax tapers to honor the funeral, which being lighted, the procession of supplication being instituted, went to St. Quirico [b], distant some miles from San Salvatore; and thence, after a short rest, they came to Siena, and, the city being untouched, straight to the monastery of St. Abundius proceeded the band, which, the crowds pouring out from the surrounding villages and hamlets as they passed, had grown immense.

[358] The nuns eagerly awaited the coming of the dead man,

While the nuns of St. Abundius, whom, living, they had held dearer than the light of their eyes; and as far as it was permitted to go to meet the one distant nearer, with what piety, I ask you, with what tenderness of affection did they receive the new Guest, preferred to gold and to the riches of the whole world? Indeed, as the sex is more prone to devotion, and softer to grief and tears, they bathed their faces profusely and reviewed by weeping their own and the common losses.

[359] The superioress Paula especially, her mind broken, her words frequently interrupted by sobs, and their abbess, said more concerning the dead man which, prudent, she had before his death pressed with silence; and this one thing besides others she lamented, that she had long ardently wished in vain to converse with him even once, with whom she was to have conferred secrets of no light moment. There came into her mind his ardent love toward God and men, the rigor of his penance, his kindness, humility, contempt of the world, and the desire—unheard-of for many centuries—of exalting the divine name, and, what they thought was to be expected from none, his singular benevolence, care, protection toward the convent of St. Abundius, which death with its dire scythe had cut off.

[360] Amid which bewailings the fame, spread through the city, drew entire troops to see and venerate that venerable body; and blessed John's very wife, but of all most swiftly Blasia his former wife [c], who for twelve years in her widowhood, that is, in the separation of the bed, had served the Lord. Who here with a style equal to the affections could explain the commotions of her heart; who the contortions of her inward parts at the sight of her once most beloved Husband; who the large rivers of tears by speaking or writing, even if one had feigned her passed into a fountain of tears, or, like another Niobe, into a stone by the force of grief?

[361] She had loved sweetly at first, as a spouse; then strongly, from a spouse a brother in the spirit; at last religiously, they receive the holy corpse with the highest grief, as an intimate familiar of God and dear to the heavenly ones: from which threefold greatness of love it is easy to take the measure of grief, and the abundance of tears from the condition of a woman by nature more tender, who had led part of her life amid conjugal offices, part no small had granted to the divine servitude, by his authorship and exhortation. And so the whole court resounded with weepings confused on every side, and there was nevertheless mixed with the bitterness of the feeling a certain sweetness and pleasantness, which the comeliness of his mouth and the grace of his lifeless countenance begot in the breasts of those groaning.

[362] Meanwhile there came from the city priests robed in linen and several cenobites, that by the rite of the Church, with psalmody, chant, manifold prayer, they might honorably perform the funeral rites. After this the companions, priests and companions after the solemn obsequies lay it in the tomb, who to the number of forty were then present, clad in the white garments given by the Pontiff, carrying out that heavenly emerald composed in the wooden chest, in a grave near the door of the temple, where we said the living man had designated a tomb for himself, lay it, and cover it with earth, sprinkled with many flowers and fragrant branches of herbs, not long after to be gloriously brought out [d], and, enclosed in golden and silver cases, to be exposed on altars to public cult.

[363] [from which it was afterward brought out more honorably, and flashes with miracles,] For that this was the will of the divine Godhead, it did not delay to declare by prodigies shown at the tomb, whose narration is owed to the following part [e], that it might become known that the glory of his triumph over three enemies utterly routed and destroyed did not have the same bounds as his life; but that it might be established that it then grew more illustrious, when the might of the dead man and his power with God, ennobled by wondrous increases, exerted itself above mortality and above death itself, and the rebel demons who brought in death, and through those very bloodless limbs and dry bones went on further to propagate miracles, which through the spirit inhabiting in them it had long before been wont to work.

NOTES.

MIRACLES WHICH HAPPENED FROM THE DEATH OF THE BLESSED ONE UP TO THE YEAR 1435,

By the author Feo Belcari. They are taken from the Italian Acts of the same Blessed one, published at Rome in the year 1558, and rendered by us into Latin from chapter 58. John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.) BY THE AUTHOR Feo Belcari. Blessed John, whose urine after death was found. The first sign which God showed after the death of blessed John Columbinus, and by which he willed to manifest the sanctity of his Servant, was a most fragrant odor, which remained in that chamber in which the Blessed one had rendered his spirit to the Creator. But the household could not grasp whence that odor came, until the mistress, after fifteen days, seeking something under the bed in which blessed John had expired, found a chamber-pot which the sick Guest had used, and in which had been left a little urine, which his companions, for excessive grief, had forgotten to cast out.

[2] But when the said mistress perceived that that sweet odor arose from that urine, emitted a sweet odor, with great gladness and devotion she took the chamber-pot, and placed it in a worthier place, and the household began to hold it in esteem. Meanwhile the fame of this thing being divulged, several went to that house, that they might become more certain of the miracle, and found the urine clear and sweetly smelling. After a space of six months had passed, among others there came thither a certain vain girl, who had a face disfigured with freckles. She thought that she would be freed from these spots, if she touched her face with this urine. And so, rashly she dipped her finger into it; but because she wished to abuse the miracle for pride and the vanity of the flesh, that urine was straightway corrupted, and lost all its fragrance ^a.

[3] Not long after the death of blessed John, a demon, I know not on what occasion, frees a possessed woman who had touched his tomb, had invaded a young girl dwelling not far from the monastery of St. Abundius, and tormented her in dire ways. It happened once, that that young girl, fleeing her pursuing parents, ran to the aforesaid monastery, where, wishing to pass over the tomb of blessed John, she fell down lifeless, and was straightway freed from the hostile demon. But she afterward confessed that by the merits of blessed John she had obtained this sudden liberation, which was straightway widely published through the city and district of Siena [b].

[4] The nuns, having seen this prodigious liberation of the young girl, by which miracle the nuns placed his relics in a worthier place. resolved solemnly to bring out the relics of blessed John from the former tomb, that they might be placed in a more honorable place. Wherefore clerics being summoned open the sarcophagus, and the herbs and flowers, which his companions had once sprinkled over the corpse, they find altogether corrupted; but the holy body was whole and without any corruption, as if it had then first been buried at that time. Therefore that precious treasure was translated into the church and placed in a fair reliquary, which the wife of blessed John had ordered to be made, and in which she had taken care to have depicted the effigy of the said blessed poor men John and Francis [c] together with the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was done seventeen months after the death of the Blessed one, and from that time a great multitude of the people flowed together to implore his help.

[5] The prodigious help of blessed John was also experienced by a certain lay sister of the same monastery, A lay sister, whose thumb was to be cut off, who had her thumb so ill-affected, that in the judgment of the physicians it was now to be cut off, lest the evil should creep to the other members. But she, fleeing to the intercession of blessed John, not only found her thumb suddenly healed, but even the nail, which was wanting, she wondrously recovered [d]. The nuns, astonished together with the surgeon who had come to cut off the thumb, praised God, wonderful in his Saints. Then the fame of this stupendous benefit was carried to the city of Siena, so that several betook themselves thither to learn of the miracle. Hence daily to the holy relics of blessed

John a greater concourse of the people was made [e].

[6] In the time of the venerable Paula [f] the abbess, a woman possessed by a demon, a woman beset by a demon, Nutina by name, was led to the tomb of blessed John, that she might be freed from the demon. The aforesaid abbess and the nuns urged the demon with many prayers and words, to desert the wretched woman. At last Paula, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the merits of blessed John, commanded the devil to go out of that woman's body, and to give a certain sign of his going out. But when the demon answered that he could not give the assigned indication of his departure, the abbess left another free to him. Forthwith therefore he deserted the woman, and, in sign of his departure, filled the wine-cellar of the monastery with so great a stench of sulphur, that the nuns for the space of three weeks could not enter it [g].

[7] a woman placed in straits, When the plague was raging in the year 1400 [h], a woman of great piety and penance, the wife of a certain citizen of Siena, who was called Martin Simonis, distributed to the poor affected with the plague a certain most sweet wine so largely, that in a short time the vessel was emptied. But when the woman saw the vessel empty, she began bitterly to wail and vehemently to fear the indignation of her husband, as one who was a man of harsh converse and endowed with austere manners. Placed in these straits, devoutly and humbly she implored the help of blessed Columbinus, and after prayers poured out, straightway she found the vessel so full, that Martin himself wondered at such fullness.

[8] and others in various necessities experience the help of the Blessed one. When Mark Ciotti, a citizen of Siena, lacked children, he commended himself to blessed John, and a little after his wife conceived, and at the set time bore a son, on whom the name of James was imposed. Then he received another son from her, whom he wished to be named Renald. In the month of July of the year 1435 there was led to the monastery of St. Abundius a possessed woman, named Frances de Meo, and before the nuns, by the intercession of blessed John, she was freed from the tyranny of the demon. Cecchus, son i of Bonaventure Columbinus, an honored citizen of Siena, desiring male offspring, devoutly invoked blessed John, and promised to offer a son soon to be born, as far as it lay in his power, to the Jesuatic Order. The vow being made, his wife bore a male, on whom the father wished the name of John Peter to be imposed, and whom he clothed with the Jesuatic garment ^k.

NOTES.

OTHER MIRACLES WHICH WERE WROUGHT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY,

By the author Paul Morigia. We excerpted them from the Italian History of the Jesuati, book 1, chapter 67, and translated them into Latin. John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR P. MORIGIA.

The glorious God in his Saints did not cease from the death of blessed John Columbinus up to the present time to confer benefits on very many The author, having prefaced some things, narrates, who implored the help of this Blessed one. Since, however, those individual things are not distinctly and exactly known, only some will here be related, which have been juridically written down by public notaries and authentically proved by legitimate witnesses, and therefore make undoubted credence. First, in the year of the Lord 1537, a nun of the convent of St. Abundius near Siena, where the body of blessed John rests, had in her throat a tumor, which, when it was to be cut, she was in present peril of death, because there was great danger lest the veins be injured in the cutting. But since she had always been pious toward blessed John, with great confidence and devotion she fled to his patronage, and straightway after the vow was made she was healed.

Now she was called Agnolina de Conti.

[10] A nun of the same convent, named Baptista, how several nuns suffered yearly from erysipelas ^a. In the year 1549 the same disease invaded her more sharply, and so corrupted her shin, that the physician and surgeon, after remedies applied in vain, judged that the leg was to be cut off, lest the gangrene, ascending above the knee, be communicated to the other members. This sick woman had in the same monastery a sister by blood, named Ursula, to whom the abbess indicated the hard judgment of the physician and surgeon, and at the same time persuaded her to commend her sister to blessed John. Ursula, having heard so sad a message, hastened to the relics of the Blessed one, and before them passed the whole night. But in the morning, wearied, in the choir she took a light sleep, at which time blessed John appeared to her in the form and habit in which he is wont to be depicted; namely of middling stature, with a bald head, and the garment of his Order. Taking her hand, with pleasant countenance and gentle words he thus asked her: "Daughter, what do you wish? Why do you so greatly cry out to me?" To whom she humbly answered: "I desire that my sister recover health." He replied: "Doubt not that your sister is to be restored to health." Animated by these words she betook herself to her sister, who straightway plainly recovered. This, to the glory of God and blessed John, in writing confirmed Judith Luti, who served the sick woman, and beheld all with her own eyes.

[11] in the convent of St. Abundius near Siena In the year 1551 there was in the same monastery Innocentia de Benassai, who from childhood had labored under some defect of her eyes. But as her age grew, that evil also grew, so that in her twenty-seventh year she became wholly blind. When she had in vain applied the counsels of physicians, at last she fled to the help of blessed John, and on his vigil promised him a fast on bread and water, and other exercises of piety. Whence by the grace of God and the intercession of blessed John she obtained a perfect faculty of seeing. A Carmelite, confessor of the said nuns, named Antony, had in his foot an ulcer so foul, that it putrefied, and afflicted him with great torment. He vowed to offer blessed John a picture in which that foot should be expressed, and suddenly the ulcer was healed.

A lay sister, named Maura, who still lives, affirms that her tongue, in a certain grievous disease, became black like a coal, and so swelled that she could not move it. When she found no remedy for this evil, she betook herself to the patronage of blessed John, and forthwith recovered her lost health.

[12] afflicted with various diseases In the year 1564 sister Eleonora Baldi, who still today dwells in the monastery of St. Abundius, for a whole year was vexed with so great a pain of the kidneys, that neither day nor night could she rest. At last by divine instinct she vowed to venerate the holy relics of blessed John on bare knees. And so she began from the door of the temple to creep to the high altar, where the reliquary was kept, and, drawing near to the holy relics, she piously and reverently kissed them. But behold, suddenly so perfect a health she obtained, that never thereafter did she feel any torment.

In the same monastery is sister Judith Luti, who asserts that from the vehement humor of certain herbs (namely she had washed the vessels with fig leaves and pellitory [b]) her hands and arms so swelled, that she could not use those members thereafter. Nay rather, that tumor gradually degenerated into ulcers, which were reckoned incurable, so that the physicians foretold that those members within fifty days would be infected with cancer. Wherefore she gave herself to the protection of blessed John, and forthwith was restored to her former state of health. The same Judith affirms that at another time, waking at midnight, together with a fever she felt a great tumor in her jaw. Whence doubting whether she had been seized by a pestilential disease, and fearing perhaps impending death, she betook herself to the temple, and opened the reliquary of blessed John, from which, having taken the haircloth of the Blessed one, she applied it to the tumor, which straightway together with the fever wondrously disappeared.

[13] Another sister, called Cassandra Nardi, testifies that for eight years she was afflicted with the gravest pains, both for herself, so that neither day nor night could she take rest. After she had used various kinds of medicines in vain, at last she implored the help of blessed John, and with living faith and great humility vowed yearly seven Masses and some other exercises of piety to him. The promise being made, by the grace of God and the merits of blessed John the said pains straightway vanished. Another nun, named Virginia Placida, in sharp torments and present peril of death, vowed to make a daily commemoration of blessed John, and to take care that on his festivity five Masses be celebrated. After the vow was emitted, she soon recovered. Sister Romana Carli for two days suffered such a pain of the eyes, that in a short time she lost all faculty of seeing. As soon as she committed the care of her sickness to blessed John, she received full sight. At another time the same nun, lying in bed on account of a vehement fever and other diseases, the help of blessed John being invoked, from all those inconveniences was snatched. Moreover the aforesaid Romana testifies that she commended her cousin in a double peril of death to blessed John, and twice obtained her health.

[14] In the aforesaid monastery sister Victoria de Conti had one toe of her foot most ill-affected, and again for others, and felt such torments in it, that she thought it must soon be cut off. A promise being made to blessed John, she began to walk, and was freed from all pain. Similarly sister Abundantia Landi asserts that her father, in a grievous disease, was given up by all the physicians of Siena, and was already in the city held for dead. Then she, God inspiring, devoted him to blessed John, who suddenly restored to him his former health. Sister Lucretia Santi, twice placed in peril of death, by the intercession of blessed John was straightway snatched from the disease. Constantia de Pauolo, a lay sister of the same monastery, committed her brother, already fortified with extreme unction, to the patronage of blessed John, and without delay obtained soundness for him. The same sister commended to blessed John two persons placed in great straits, who experienced the powerful help of the Blessed one. Magdalena Valentino, a lay sister, for two months laboring under a fever, and finding no solace for her disease among the physicians, ran to the intercession of blessed John, and straightway the fever was driven off.

[15] When sister Bernardina de Galgano for fifty- eight days had her foot afflicted with an evil unknown to the physicians, fled to the intercession of blessed John Columbinus, she commended herself to blessed John, and forthwith was healed. The same asserts that a certain religious, vexed with the sharpest pains, by the invocation of the same Blessed one soon recovered health. The abbess and vicaress of the same monastery testify that sister Agatha Semiglialo, on account of a vehement fever, lay in bed, and after some days blood burst from her nostrils, which by no industry of the physicians could be stopped. At last the sick woman placed her hope in the patronage of blessed John, and obtained from the nuns to be carried to the temple, where, the reliquary being opened (O the great power of this Blessed one before God!), not without the utmost amazement of the nuns that flux of blood ceased, after she had reverently and devoutly kissed the holy relics. Sister Agnes Piccolomini labored under so unusual a quinsy, that she had her throat suppurated and altogether perforated, and for that evil in vain was a remedy applied. At last blessed John, whose help she had implored with great confidence, wondrously restored her to health. Whence she afterward always showed to the same Blessed one a singular affection of a grateful mind.

[16] and in various pains The healing of Eustochia Silvestri is not to be kept silent, who was afflicted with so great a pain of the teeth, that neither day nor night could she rest, and sometimes for excessive torment dashed her head against the wall. The sister who served her, pitying her lot, called another nun, that both might lead the afflicted one to the temple in which the holy bones of blessed John are kept. When there all three had invoked blessed John, afterward they opened his reliquary, and with great reverence and confidence cut off a particle of the linen in which the foot of the Blessed one was wrapped, which they applied to the ill-affected tooth. Then, some prayers being there poured out, the sick woman fell asleep, and afterward waking felt herself free from all pain.

[17] and troubles In the year 1595 Dorothea Cappacci, abbess of the said monastery, was also vexed with an intolerable pain of the teeth, which could be soothed by no remedies. She at last ordered the jaw, where the torment was more intense, to be touched with certain relics of blessed John, and without delay that pain was so put to flight, that it never afterward returned. Sister Abundantia Guglielmi had a foot swollen, and for five months had found no remedy for this noxious tumor; nay rather the evil daily grew. Therefore on the vigil of blessed John she took care to be carried before the chest in which his holy body rests, and there, a vow being emitted, she felt herself perfectly healed, and alone so alertly returned to her cell, as if she had never been impeded by any inconvenience.

[18] the ready and prodigious help of that one When sister Beatrix Almerighi had fallen from a high place, she so injured her foot and shin, that the physicians doubted of her life. A certain kinswoman of hers, hearing of so great a peril, commended her to blessed John, and promised to offer a silver shin, if she should escape the danger. The vow being made, the nun prodigiously recovered, and with thanksgiving offered the silver shin. Hippolyta Conti, oppressed with the greatest pain, for which no remedy availed, demanded the help of blessed John, and, finding with her a part of the linen which had lain over the body of the Blessed one, with it she touched the ill-affected place, and straightway recovered health. The same nun affirms that she asked of that Blessed one no benefit which she did not obtain.

[19] experienced. Another nun commended to blessed John a secular woman, who was in great peril of death, and vowed that she would take care that an image of the Blessed one be painted, and that picture be hung before his relics. After the vow was made, that woman wondrously obtained health. A certain peasant-woman devoted to the same Blessed one her infant, still wrapped in swaddling-bands, and laboring under a most grievous fever, and obtained for him sudden health. Moreover the aforesaid nuns testify that by the intercession of blessed John they obtained various other benefits.

[20] An altar was erected to his honor in the suburb of Mantua, It is not to be omitted in this place, that in the year 1593 Dominic Afinaro, a rich merchant of Mantua, by reading the Life and miracles of blessed John was moved with a singular affection of devotion toward this Blessed one: for in our temple, which stands in the suburb of Porto [c] of Mantua, he ordered an altar to be made, in which is depicted the effigy of that Blessed one with certain miracles which, living, he wrought. And it pleased God here, on account of the merits of his Servant, to manifest his mercy, and up to the present day to confer the desired benefits on all who there, with living faith and sincere piety, implore the help of the Blessed one. Wherefore there is great concourse of the people there, and that devotion daily increases, as appears from the painted tablets, the wax and silver gifts, and the other offerings hung up there.

[21] First there the help of blessed John was experienced by the magnificent Lord John Mary Lazura, where also several benefits are conferred, who, oppressed by a lethal disease, by the intercession of that Blessed one suddenly obtained health. Moreover the most illustrious Lord Gonzaga [d], bishop of Mantua, enduring a grievous inconvenience in his foot, the industry of the physicians being applied in vain, by divine instinct fled to the intercession of blessed John, and after a certain vow was emitted, without any delay was healed. Wherefore, about to render thanks to God and to his blessed Benefactor, he came to his altar, and there, before his image, offered a silver foot, and gave alms to the Prior of the convent. Then, to augment the devotion of the people, he granted indulgences of forty days to all the faithful who should visit that altar.

[22] A certain youth, named John Baptist Torri, and miracles are wrought. dwelling in the suburb of Porto, labored under a most grievous disease, and, now fortified with the last Sacraments of the Church, struggled with death, so that in the judgment of the physicians death would shortly follow. On that night in which he seemed to be in agony, blessed John appeared to him, and asked of him the shirt with which he was covered. The sick man straightway began to cry out and to ask that they give him another shirt, because he wished to offer his own to blessed John, who had demanded it. His mother and the others present thought he was delirious, and therefore neglected to give him that shirt. Then, resting a little, he began again to demand a new shirt, and to repeat the same words. The bystanders therefore, that they might satisfy him, the former shirt being taken away, clothed him with another. Then the sick man ordered it to be offered to blessed John, and at that very time he felt himself better. Finally on the third day he rose from his bed so sound, as if he had never been sick, and came to give thanks to blessed John. Daily there at the altar of the said Blessed one new benefits are conferred, and stupendous miracles are wrought, which are now committed to authentic letters [e].

NOTES.

APPENDIX

On the writings and documents of blessed John Columbinus. John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.)

FROM PRINTED SOURCES.

The Blessed one wrote in Italian the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, Among the writings of John Columbinus there first occurs the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, which in volume VII of May, page 188, we attributed to him on the faith of Bartholomew of Siena the Carthusian, who concerning the finding of the same Life in his prologue to the reader thus prefaces: "Which little book indeed, although it was elaborated quite confusedly and in an uncertain order, yet we read it written with the best faith and integrity, and moreover composed in the native tongue of that happy age… Meanwhile I had read the longed-for codex with so great pleasure, or rather had most greedily devoured it, that among the various motions of my mind this one thing indeed somewhat bit me at times; namely that from the very first front it lacked the name of its own author. For the rest having looked a little more keenly at the whole series of the events, I am suddenly suffused with new joys, as soon as I perceive that John, son of Peter Columbini, a most holy man, and Nicholas Vincent, brother of Francis Vincent, were the authors of our whole history." Our Elders on the 29th of May, in the place just cited, grieved that this Life of blessed Peter Petroni had been interpolated by Bartholomew of Siena, and tried in vain to obtain the Italian text of blessed John Columbinus himself, as they there indicate.

[2] More purely there have come to us some epistles of the same Blessed one, many epistles which Joseph Bonafede in the Italian Life of blessed John Columbinus, book 3, from the Altemps library, faithfully and in the vernacular published, as he there testifies in the proem. Feo Belcari once had read a hundred of them, as on another occasion in the previous Commentary, num. 42, I noted, which have now partly perished, or perhaps somewhere struggle with moths and worms. But from those which still survive, easily the pious and fervent style of the others is gathered: for they are full of a certain holy ardor which kindles the minds of the readers: but their doctrine is to be esteemed the more, because it was not acquired by the study of letters, which our blessed Layman was ignorant of, but seems in a manner divinely infused.

[3] and perhaps some exhortations. There remain also some admonitions of his, by which he roused his companions to the exercise of various virtues and perfection. One could doubt whether the Blessed one handed these down in writing, or only inculcated them by living voice, which, impressed on the memory by his companions, and afterward committed to writing, have come to us: for Feo Belcari to exhortations of this kind premises this or a similar formula: "John said to his most beloved brothers." Yet our Rossi, part 4 of the Triumph, hints that blessed John wrote those instructions to his companions, and calls them epistles, which Feo Belcari had called exhortations. Whatever be the truth of this matter, we shall exhibit some fragments of those admonitions (call them epistles or exhortations, as you please) from Rossi in Latin, that the inmost and pious thoughts of our Blessed one may more clearly appear, since, according to Christ himself, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Although those admonitions in the praised Joseph Bonafede are disposed in a different order, yet they are the same which our Rossi rendered into Latin. Wherefore we shall follow the order kept by Rossi, and shall divide the too-long matter into some paragraphs. § I. The thoughts of blessed John Columbinus on faith, hope, and charity toward God and neighbor. Besides very many proofs of a living and incorrupt faith, which blessed John gave in the time of his life, now about to die he wished a perpetual testimony of the same virtue to be written in his name in the authentic records, Blessed John, having emitted a profession of faith, which above in chapter 23 of the Acts, from num. 331, we related entire. It will not be irksome here to repeat some fragment of them, which to our purpose runs thus: "It is true and in faith of the truth I profess, that I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and I hold for certain whatever the holy Roman Church holds, and Urban its pastor, its Cardinals, brothers in the Lord, and its other prelates, … to whom hitherto I have shown myself obsequious, and even to death will show myself, as to those bearing the place of the Lord on earth: for this is the way which leads to life; and with me it is certain, that all who turn aside from it, and deny that their definitions and decrees have flowed from God through the infusion of the Holy Spirit, and therefore who dare to violate them, are not to be numbered among the faithful, nor to be held for Catholics; nor is it to be doubted that those who into these absurdities spontaneously fall are members divided from Christ."

[5] Would that these words of the Blessed one be attentively weighed by those writers of our times he shows great reverence toward the Roman Church, who try to diminish the authority of the supreme Pontiff and to restrict the power of the Roman Church! Whence our Rossi, part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 1, to this profession of faith noted the following: "It was noticed by the wise that it was done by divine impulse, that he mingled the Catholic faith with the Roman Church, and this again with the Catholic faith, so that, spread through the thousands of spaces of ages and places, this too might be added, the divine testimony of a Man to whom for error to underlie, as it would be rash to assert, so it would be foolish to suspect it in so manifest an abundance of heavenly gifts and effusion of light, by which God deigned to reveal to his humble Servant the things which from the wise and prudent of this world he hid."

Hence also blessed John so earnestly commended to his companions reverence toward the Roman Church and the supreme Pontiffs, as in his Acts in the same place, num. 334, is read.

[6] From the fruitful root of faith arose hope, to which the blessed Master roused his disciples with these words: and roused his companions to hope "Jesus Christ blessed alone is he who can free us from so many and so great incursions of wars, to which the brief course of our life is exposed. These indeed being many and grievous, our wretched fragility would altogether succumb, unless the piety of our clement and most sweet God should succor: whose support not only in great perils, but also in the least at every moment is so necessary to our governance and support, that, it being withdrawn, we shall fall into every misfortune.

[7] Wherefore, if we are certain that without his help we cannot stand, but rush into the gravest crimes, why shall we not sedulously take care and exhorts to place our trust in God. that we continually adhere to him, and place our hope in him? Let us be renewed in the spirit of our mind, most beloved brothers, and although we are liable to sharp reprehension for having made loss of time, let us beware, however, lest we be absorbed by sad thought, and sink into the whirlpool of despair; but rather with the greatest confidence let us run to our good Jesus, and hope in him: for without doubt he will deign to embrace us, will confirm, and solidify us, nor will suffer us to be destitute of his help," etc. Joseph Bonafede in the Columbinian Life, book 3, chapter 4, exhibits this admonition entire, the greater part of which Rossi, part 4, chapter 2, translated into Latin, from whom we here gave it.

[8] He rouses the same Although from the whole course of the Acts it sufficiently appears with how great an ardor of divine love blessed John burned, yet since speech is also an index of a loving heart, let us hear the blessed Man discoursing of this love thus: "Most beloved brothers, deliver yourselves to God, whose you are, not in part, but wholly, and tear your heart away from all created things; because the time is short, and life can by no means be prolonged.

Blessed are those who, every impediment being removed, love Christ. The mind of one loving anything besides God is overspread with darkness: for as things placed upon the bodily eyes hinder the light, and impede the sight, so the things that are loved outside God loose the union of the soul with him, and take away the light of the truth of Jesus Christ. I beseech you, let us again be kindled with a new love in the ardent charity of Jesus Christ, and let us think we have done nothing good hitherto, and with a magnanimous and generous heart, and with a blazing desire of the love of Christ, in imitation of plants, let us be renewed, and prepared to bear much fruit.

[9] to the love of God, The reason of our institute compels us to procure the divine love by the excitation of holy desire and the zeal of fervent prayer, and to augment it both by living voice and by the exercise of all virtues, especially of perfect charity toward

God and neighbor, and of true humility. Let us inquire of our good Jesus what are the greater and more pleasing precepts to him; and he will answer: 'Love me above all things with your whole heart and with all your strength and the powers of soul and body, and your neighbor as yourselves.' What is sweeter and more delightful than this discourse uttered from the mouth of eternal life? Ah me, if we loved our most faithful companion Christ, we would faithfully also greatly desire to die with him. Ah, ah, let us die with him, since he deigned to die for us. Greater charity no one has than that one lay down his soul for his friend. If we love perfectly, we shall grieve more for the offenses inflicted on God than for our own condemnation: for we are held to love him more than ourselves. Always receive the gifts of the Lord with charity, ignorant of measure, and with a love smelling of madness, to which be joined the desire of holy poverty, and mutual affection among you, and joy and jubilation, and harmony. But above all put off utterly the affection of earthly things, because Christ disdains to enter a soul occupied by another's love, or by love of itself for its own sake," etc. Here too a few things are wanting, which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 5, are found in Italian.

[10] with which he himself, burning, desired. Our Blessed one, kindled with divine love, desired that all should converse of God, and exhorted his companions to institute spiritual colloquies of this kind, as Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 1, in Italian relates, and our Rossi, part 4, chapter 3, §3, interprets in Latin in this manner: "I am of this opinion, that I esteem the virtues to have collapsed from their state and decorum, because also discourses of God have failed. I well know it is most truly commonly said, 'The tongue speaks what the heart feels'; and so he who speaks of the world knows the things that are the world's, and grows cold; he who speaks of Christ, to him Christ is savory, and he grows warm. Wherefore if you desire that Christ be with you, and make you abundance of himself, incessantly have him in your mouth, either sing praises to him, or read something of him, or by meditation and prayer renew his memory. I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that there is no greater temptation or peril from any other source than that which is from the madness and sloth of pressing with silence the inestimable goods of God.

[11] The most sweet conversation about Jesus Christ is food, that all should of spiritual things and the life of the soul; and he whom it delights will not happen to be separated from him, but will always have Christ with him. If the whole world conspire against you, and bid you abstain and be silent from the preaching and praise of Christ, deride it, mindful of the promise:

'He who shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father, who is in heaven.' Therefore I seriously wish you warned, lest at any time you suffer this most holy art of speaking of Jesus Christ to fall from your memory. If to the cloisters of religious even this alone, the custom of speaking of God, should return, together with it the fervor of the spirit would return, and thence flames would go forth to warm the world. The more frequent the discourses of God shall be, the more sublime senses of him you will experience.

[12] Ho, you! It is now the hour to rise from sleep; day and night through the crossways, through the squares, let us cry out the blessed name of Christ. and speak of Christ. Let us descend, if it be needful, even to hell, that there by us it may be recorded. There men are cast down in troops, because they were unmindful of it and despisers of it. Let us tend thither, crying out and repeating: 'May the most holy name of Jesus live and again live.' Let not our tongues grow weary, nor our hearts be sated with the cries: 'May Christ crucified live; may Christ live; may Christ crucified live a hundred thousand times; may the most holy name of Jesus live forever; may Christ live throughout the whole world in the souls of all men; to Jesus Christ be ever honor and blessing and glory, but to us the confusion of our face.' I beseech you, brothers, that at least a thousand times each day you remember the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," etc.

[13] From this ardent love toward God there flowed forth sincere love of enemies, Enemies, as useful to us, which Christ commanded us, and by his example taught us. How deeply blessed John Columbinus engraved that doctrine of the heavenly Master on his mind appears from his words, which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 6, in Italian, and in Rossi, part 4, chapter 5, §2, in Latin, are thus read: "O with how great love are those to be followed who afflict us! How lovingly are kisses to be offered to the hand which strikes us! How from the marrow is the tongue to be repaid with a blessing which assails us with blasphemies and revilings! How greatly are those to be loved who persecute us! Hatred is to be exercised only against ourselves, as against enemies, than whom we suffer none more hostile. Let us recall to memory the saying of the most fervent servant of God St. Francis, asserting that those are greatly to be loved to whom our malevolence and persecution is a delight: for they are a help to us, that we may bring back victory over the domestic adversary, that we may rout the most foul tyrant, such as we ourselves and our concupiscence are against us.

[14] Ah, wretched me! For this is the right and compendious way to salvation, he shows are to be loved, and I, wretched, from it spontaneously turn aside to erratic and long paths. What does good discourse profit us, and great notice of God and of virtues, if we refuse to walk by this way which he opened to us? This is one of the truths, to which if I contradict by word or deed, my conscience forbids me to speak or write. Would that among the upright I were not reckoned a wicked sinner and guilty: for thus I should less displease God, to whom the good are pleasing. Ah me, what shall I do? Assuredly I shall die, unless I enter this way of the love of enemies. Wherefore I ask you, servants of God, that you help me with your prayers, and that you strive to obtain this for me from him; first indeed, that him candidly and sincerely, then my neighbor, I may love; but myself I may hold in hatred, that thus in some way I may respond to his most holy love toward me: for by so many and great titles I am bound to perform this.

[15] and teaches how From these each one easily gathers that love toward the brothers of the same profession and the household of the faith was commended by him who wished enemies to be so greatly loved for God's sake. Yet it pleases to hear blessed John himself, who in Rossi, part 4, chapter 5, §3, of fraternal charity thus discourses:

"Love and charity, by which we love one another, gives testimony to our spirit concerning ourselves. Who therefore would dare to say that an absent neighbor is loved by him, if he does not love the brother sitting at his side? But if you allege vice and defect, as an impediment of love, see whether you too be liable to the same, and, if you have sight, you will perceive yourself deformed by far more and greater ones. Therefore, dearest brothers, love one another with the fiery love of the Holy Spirit, and let each of you speak of your fathers and brothers those things which conduce to the glory of God and their spiritual consolation.

[16] we ought to love brothers, Let us detract from none, nor judge anyone by any pretext; but rather of God's offenses let us frequently grieve. Let us compassionate the afflicted, with those weeping let us weep. Let us comfort the faint-hearted, and for our neighbors always pray. If we desire to be disciples of Christ, let us betray our vows by signs, which at last are contained in this one mark of mutual love, lacking bound and measure. Let us embrace one another in the Lord sweetly, as sons of God, with a love, namely, never failing. I ask of you again and again with the whole affection of the heart; love one another, and let peace and concord always dwell in you; nor let there be found among you anyone seeking primacy over others: for he who shall wish to be greater, will be less; and he who more humbles himself, shall be exalted.

[17] and render them services. Love one another, as good brothers, and if anyone is sick, be at hand to him with all charity and diligence, and hold him in the place of Christ, who said: 'Whatever you did to one of my least ones, you did to me.' Retain in memory the precept of Christ about mutual love: this he left us by testament; this he willed to be our wisdom; this he said would be the mark of his servants and disciples, if we love one another. Therefore let us bear one another's burdens, and support one another in charity. The natures of mortals are not of equal condition.

This is the will of the Lord, that the wise sustain the simple, and that inferiors reverently obey superiors. For the love of Christ let all these things be done." These same things in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 8, are read in Italian. Now I proceed to a similar commendation of the other virtues.

§ II. The documents of the same Blessed one concerning a certain sublime kind of prayer, concerning mortification, voluntary poverty, contempt of the world, and patience.

Dominic of Monticello, of whom above in the Acts, num. 217, mention was made, among other things had consulted blessed John Columbinus about a certain sublime kind of prayer, The Blessed one explains to one a sublime kind of prayer, because he did not sufficiently understand it, although he had long studied mystical theology, and had attentively perused many ascetic books. To him the blessed Man, after a humble excuse of his slenderness and inexperience, answered in this manner: "To the praise and glory of the most holy Trinity I will not keep silent, that from those great gifts (they are all fully recorded in the Italian epistle which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 24, exists entire) and from the skillful exercise of the unitive way, a certain affection of charity emanates, and of a love wholly transformed into God, and drunk with God, and from the very center of the soul there arises a feeling, I know not what, blazing with a pure and limpid love, lacking all discourse of the mind, and, what is more wonderful, without any thought of God, or of Christ, or of eternal life, clinging: beholding no heavenly thing, or earthly, or human, or divine, of those which before it had perceived, or by imagination had grasped.

[19] But the affection alone, absorbed by the affection of great love, or of contemplation, is bound to it by a most tight bond, so that they migrate into one affection; nor now is anything singular sought, or can be sought; but there is a swimming of good in good and a flight of love: nor in this rapture of love is anything seen, or felt, or asked; but there is an immensity of good, and the completion of love, and the terminus, I think, of feeling. An affection of this kind and love enters, and the affection of love, into the abyss of love and the divine darkness; divine, I say, because that is the divinity itself and the abyss; and I call it darkness, because they are obscure to understand, more obscure to express. This ascent and submersion in the sea of divinity excludes all consideration and imagination of any thing, love alone works in love; I should believe it is the fruition of fruitions. Nevertheless I confess that I do not know how to explain in words what is done inwardly in the mind: for these are the works of the great and the fervent, and not of the poor and cold, such as I am," etc.

[20] From this fragment of the epistle, which Rossi, part 4, chapter 6, published in Latin, which he himself seems to have known by experience, we not rashly conjecture that blessed John was endowed with the divine gift of the highest contemplation, although out of a sincere submission of mind he here despises himself as poor and cold: for this very explanation of the more sublime prayer savors of the style of the Saints, who by experience learned what is that suspension of the mind from every creature, submersion, swimming, most tight union, commixture of affections, abyss, fruition of fruitions, the sole operation of love, and other things of this kind, which human philosophy does not grasp, sacred theology admires, and few experience. Certainly the praised Dominic of Monticello, in a letter of response, which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, in the prologue, exists in Italian, frankly confesses that he learned more from this single epistle of blessed John Columbinus, than from a long reading of ascetic books.

[21] Since prayer without mortification, according to the most skilled leaders of the spiritual way, is liable to illusion, our Blessed one willed to add mortification to prayer, and persuades his companions to exercise mortification, the dignity and merit of which virtue he thus proposed to his companions: "The true way of coming to Christ is mortification and reproaches. Christ calls us to himself by the way of reproaches, injuries, and contempt of the world. He who walks by this, bitterly weeps for his ill-spent years and offenses against God, and vehemently desires to take vengeance on himself, all modes of penance being assumed which can lawfully be used. Moreover he is a lover of humility, of patience, and with great charity embraces all for the love of the Creator; himself alone he holds in hatred, himself alone he displeases. Revilings, contumelies, torments, persecutions he ardently desires, nor from any other source than from the knowledge of the divine goodness, and the vileness of himself, does that desire proceed. Of our Lord in the Gospel are those words: 'Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.' Therefore we must die utterly to the whole world and to our own will, if we wish to bring forth the fruit of Christ: otherwise we shall be barren and useless.

[22] let them Let us grieve, let us wail, and harshly rage against ourselves: for although we be without the other faults, ingratitude alone, and contempt of God, and a certain, as it were, abjection would have to be punished by a thousand deaths, if it could be. Let us at last open our eyes and weep for our lost time; for redeeming which mortification and penance alone can be enough. Yet this will be of short duration, because swift is the course of us all to death. Or behold me, now running the twelfth year in this stadium, and yet to me all this time seems as yesterday, which has passed. Be solicitous, most beloved, and attend to spiritual gains, while you have time, work good, lest unforeseen death find you unprepared and poor." The same exhortation Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 12, published in Italian.

[23] voluntary poverty Akin to mortification is poverty, whose zeal and love our Blessed one thus persuades his companions: "Holy poverty strips the soul of solicitudes and earthly affections, and of created things frees it from the desire; whence it comes about that, unencumbered of their burden and void of self-love, as soon as it is touched by a light impulse, it flies to the contemplation of God, and is drawn to the meditation of Christ's passion; on which, as on food, it is nourished and delighted. My brothers, this is the will of Christ the Lord, that you be ardent lovers of poverty, and that you embrace it with the whole affection of the heart. Therefore keep yourselves immune from the property of any thing, and shun it as poison: for Satan labors at this, to persuade you to say even in the least things: 'This is mine.'

[24] greedily embrace, I beseech you to be grievous or troublesome to no man by asking or receiving: for this license displeases God and men, and this importunate soliciting. Preserve holy poverty in its purity and brightness, nor in any part suffer it to be injured or shaken: for it is the foundation upon which the edifice of all virtues is erected and rests. It is likewise the tinder and aliment by which humility is nourished. Voluntary poverty, by the merits of Christ the Lord, enriches ours, and this, in regard of him, is to be esteemed of far more worth than imperial treasures. Poverty, poverty, your meaning is not fully perceived! May poverty live in our hearts." This eulogy of poverty is found in Italian in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 11, from which Rossi without doubt, part 4, chapter 8, translated it into Latin.

[25] Nor does the contempt of the world differ much from mortification and poverty, and the world to which the same blessed Master, according to Rossi, part 4, chapter 9, thus spurred his disciples: "I ask you, brothers, that, as far as our strength allows, we show ourselves strenuous enemies and adversaries of the world. You are not ignorant that Christ by no means prayed for the world, because he held it in hatred, and up to now holds it. Therefore if we desire to be loved by Christ, let us turn away from the world with its conveniences and honors. Let our thoughts be pure, and our discourses holy and sweet. Let us guard our tongue from every word which bears either a handle of scandal, or the shadow of a bad example.

[26] Let the reins be loosed to tears; and let the misery of the world be deplored, with its riches whose blindness and ignorance is so great, that, the highest good being left, it embraces the worst evil. Let us despise human things and their followers; but to heavenly and sublime things let us aspire, and cultivate our mind with holy virtues. Far better it is to be fervent with the love of the most sweet Jesus, in whom and through whom all that is honorable and pleasant is found without measure and time, than to be detained by the affection of fleeting things, which, if they be loved, bring penalty; if they be possessed, possess the possessor, and love to be feared, themselves ignorant of fear.

Wherefore take counsel from me: deliver yourselves and all your things entirely to God, and prefer him to all: for the time is short and passes most swiftly.

[27] O how great labors, led by the desire of honor, do seculars undergo, and honors let them despise, and by no means approach the Lord Jesus! And how with no difficulty this truth can be attained! Further, one thing is necessary, to esteem human judgments and honors as nothing. O how pernicious is this twin pest, which takes God from us, and brings a heap of cares! Let us keep it far from us, my brothers, and return to our former simplicity and brightness. I have found by experience that the whole world, blinded with the execrable darkness of its own judgment and esteem of vain honor, grievously errs. Feign folly at pleasure for the love of Christ, and you will be wise. May Christ the Lord teach you the salutary madness in spurning honors and in putting off vain esteem of yourselves, because the further we recede from them, the nearer we approach to him. These same things in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 14, are expressed in Italian.

[28] But since the public profession of the preceding virtues is exposed to many difficulties and adverse things, and finally with the arms of patience blessed John thus fortified his companions with the shield of patience: "My most beloved brothers, let us most humbly have patience toward all men for Christ's love, and keep it entire in every adversity of fortune, and in any infirmity of the body, and in all inconveniences and persecutions.

God by his just providence sends tribulations and consolations to the soul, that from both he may have the fruit of our salvation. A sagacious farmer is no less gladdened by the frost and ice of January, than by the warmths of May and the impending heat: for under the snows and hoarfrosts the grains are softened and prepared for the crop. So the servants of God are equally affected with joy by prosperity and adversity: for by this the spirit is depressed, by that, lest it be lifted up by pride, a bridle is cast on the flesh, and it is tamed; and both yields to profit for taking the spiritual fruit.

[29] Be not terrified by temptations, which are the true crown and life of our soul: nay, with joy let us await them, and patiently and bravely bear them: for as gold is proved by fire, so the soul by tribulations, that it may appear whether it be truly of God. against the adversities that occur, Therefore let us rejoice, and be nourished by a certain fruition in the spirit of tribulation, at the incursion of any penalty and temptation. He who refuses to fight, already confesses himself conquered, and gives his hands; but he who undauntedly descends into the contest, is near to victory. Therefore we must be prepared to fight with manly mind against the adversaries. Let us put on the arms of the cross of Christ, mindful to invoke his name, and thus we shall come off victors, and Jesus Christ will crown us with the crown of glory in heaven.

[30] and various tribulations It befits us to bear ourselves as generous lions, and to sustain all adversities for the love of Jesus Christ crucified: for to those so affected all arduous things will seem easy. No calamity ought to separate us from the charity of Christ. Curses and injuries, biting and contumelious words and deeds, let them be borne benignly and tranquilly, and thus you will be blessed. When necessaries are at hand, give thanks to God, and pray for your benefactors: but when want presses, let us remember patience and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was always at hand to his most faithful servants, and will succor us in our need.

In every adversity, by faith, patience, hope in God guard yourselves.

[31] let them protect themselves. Recollect how frequently the divine goodness brought support to its servants. Even when they are unjustly traduced, and know not what to answer to the superior powers, have they not a promise from God? Do not think how, or what you shall speak. For this cause fortify your hearts with patience and trust in God. For him and for his honor, and for your salvation, contend constantly, that after the goal of a brief life the same Lord Jesus Christ may make you partakers of his glory. Many and great things this brief exhortation contains, which Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 13, expressed in the vernacular idiom of the Blessed one, and Rossi, part 4, chapter 10, translated into the Latin tongue. Now let us hear the remaining eulogies of certain virtues. § III. His doctrine concerning humility, the fear of the Lord, prudent governance, and the zeal for perfection. Blessed John humility After his conversion, blessed John Columbinus, from humility as a foundation, began to build the new edifice of Evangelical perfection, and through the various degrees of humility diligently ascended to the highest summit of the virtues, as we saw in his Acts. But how greatly he esteemed this virtue will appear from the following oration, by which he thus impelled his companions to a sincere submission of mind: "If any praise and adornment of the other virtues grows in us, it much more befits humility to grow: for according to the increase of the grace infused in us our obligation toward God becomes greater, and for paying it we poor ones are unequal. Let it not be irksome to be called useless servants, as we truly are: for this too is a gift of grace, that we receive grace. So that it may seem worthy of tears and horror, that by secular men we are to be judged under the name of sloth, because they would perform far more in the divine service, if they were imparted even half the part of the grace with which God has endowed us.

[33] In virtue alone and in the execution of the divine will our salvation and our good is placed. he extols with praises, Not he who has more sublime senses of God is dearer to him; but he who imitates him by the acts of virtues: for from him to whom he gives more, he also exacts more. It is a manifest sign of pride to neglect the humble giving of thanks for benefits received: therefore it must be diligently guarded against, and with great humility Christ's gifts toward us are to be recollected, and thanks given. Wherefore, most beloved brothers, the greater light God infuses in us, the more clearly shall we recognize our weakness and misery, and his goodness, and shall esteem our actions far inferior to the debt by which we are bound. And, to speak briefly, the nearer we approach to God through grace and holy virtues, the more our mind will be illumined, and in our slenderness and abjection we shall understand that he is all our good and strength, but we are nothing except vileness and great weakness.

[34] It is incredible to say with how great abundance and excellence of virtues I have noticed the Cardinals,

and by the example of the first prelates of the Church the magnates, and several prelates to be strong, with whom I sometimes had to deal; so much so that their illustrious deeds can be a blush and confusion to us, because they display in the loftiness of their state and the abundance of their wealth a greater modesty and submission, than we needy proud ones keep in the depth of our condition, and in the profession of perfection. I do not know why Rossi, part 4, chapter 11, here in the midst of the discourse omitted one or another line, which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 10, thus follows in Italian: "Noi gli atti, & essi i fatti. Per certo niuno giudichi, che troppo è dubbio e pericolo." But these former words, according to the Cruscan Vocabulary, in which the Italian word "atto" sometimes signifies a light and childish action, I thus paraphrastically interpret: "We poor ones show light acts of humility, and those magnates produce heroic deeds of that virtue." But otherwise the same words can have this sense: "We profess humility, and those exercise it." Whence I thus explain the following admonition, as if the Blessed one said: "Since therefore from me you hear that those prelates in the highest summit of dignity keep humility, from the exterior splendor of honor and glory let no one certainly judge, because it is too ambiguous and perilous." If here we stray from the true interpretation, let the Italians pardon us Belgians. Indeed this explanation with the preceding sayings sufficiently agrees.

[35] Then the blessed Master thus goes on to exhort his disciples to the same virtue: rouses his companions to the same. "Let each of us strive to be less and to be esteemed behind the rest, and thus he will come out greater than all. This he will more easily attain, if he persuade himself that he has hitherto made loss of time, and resolve to break off delays, and to sweat at good works. But especially care must be taken, that we reckon all mortals better than us, ourselves worse than all. Let us not blush to give the signs of true humility, not feigned or painted, and, as we are taught by the Lord, let us do all these things for the love of his goodness, and confess ourselves useless servants. God does not need our works; he is rich in himself, and depending on no creature: but we need him from every side, without whom we can neither be nor live. He alone chose us, and admitted us to his servitude, not by any merit of ours, but by his own implanted benignity and clemency, that he might adopt us into sons, and lead us to eternal glory.

[36] Not undeservedly will anyone wonder, that our blessed John, to whom he sets forth the fall of Solomon, an unlettered and simple man, should skillfully explain in writing the hidden mysteries of contemplation, wisely discuss the subtle dogmas of faith, so learnedly explain the nature and properties of the various virtues; but in this darkness the fear of the Lord bore the torch before him, which is the beginning of wisdom.

Moreover the companion of humility, of which we already treated above, is the same fear of the Lord, which the blessed Father thus inculcated on his spiritual sons:

"Ah, wretched me! Fear and trembling occupy me thinking that, if the largess of heavenly gifts were a pledge of eternal life, upon what mortal would its merit have fallen better than upon Solomon? For it so pleased God, and especially for this, that he had asked for wisdom, that he was heaped with it above the measure of all whom the earth had ever nourished. The building of his most holy temple he reserved for him. He was suffused with so great a light of knowledge, as much, and more, than the volumes written by him manifest, so much so that he plainly perceived all mundane things to be mere vanity: and nevertheless, according to the opinion of St. Augustine, he was condemned to the pains of hell.

[37] whom, according to the opinion of St. Augustine, he thinks perished eternally, The opinion concerning the salvation or damnation of Solomon is much controverted both among ancient and more recent writers, as may be seen in the ready interpreters of holy Scripture and namely our Salian in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Old Testament at the year of the world 3058, volume 3, from page 914. Some number St. Augustine among the ambiguous and uncertain authors of this controversy; but Augustine seems more probably to teach that Solomon was reprobated and damned by God, as in book 22 against

Faustus the Manichaean, chapters 81 and 88, and in other places he indicates. I know that the harder words of St. Augustine are by the assertors of the contrary opinion somehow mitigated and explained. But these suffice, that our Blessed one prudently thought that Solomon, according to St. Augustine's opinion, was condemned to the pains of hell.

[38] and thus, from the perils of others Further, blessed John thus goes on to strike a useful fear of the Lord into his own: "How many others besides have obtained various spiritual gifts, whether of knowledge or of prophecy, whether of the working of virtues and miracles, whom yet hell has devoured and torments? For in virtue alone and in the fulfilling of the divine will our good and our salvation are placed. See how rigid the divine judgment is, and how greatly to be feared. Consider that God willed the flour to be separated from the bran: nor yet is it fitting to despond in mind; for from the summit of paradise several of the angels fell, and those who stood, excelled the rest in sanctity. You will find no religious company in which all have kept constancy up to the end, nor do I think ours is to be excepted from the common inconstancy. But woe to him who shall look back, and shall tear himself from our society. God willed to prove who are his true servants, lest the false and degenerate be covered by his cloak and lie hidden. Therefore rejoice and be comforted in the Lord, that you have stood on the part of his servants, and have not turned aside to those who, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being neglected, returned to the miseries of the world and the abominations of sins, and indeed with so great misfortune and disgrace, that there is almost none who beholds them with fair eyes.

[39] But let their harms make us cautious, he strikes into them a useful fear of the Lord. that we may learn humility and prudence from the falls of others. Let us have mercy on them, entreating God for them, and let us learn to fear for ourselves by their example. Let us be strong and constant, lest we succumb to temptations: for he who refuses to wrestle manfully and turns his back, can by no means hope for victory and crown. And in this wrestling no one is overcome, except he who spontaneously yields to the adversary: for our enemy is not superior in strength to us, strengthened by divine grace. Always therefore be humble, patient, and fearful: for thus it will come about that you persevere in good, and are recognized as true disciples and servants of Jesus Christ. Persevere in good unto the end: for not he who begins, but he who perseveres unto the end, he will be saved in Christ… For nourishing and guarding the fear of the Lord, remember our last things, death, the divine judgment, the pains of hell, and the glory of paradise." Where some dots are noted here, Rossi, part 4, chapter 12, omitted certain things which in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 16, are found in Italian.

[40] Although from the Acts on both sides it appears that blessed John Columbinus, according to the etymology of his surname, was endowed with the simplicity of a dove, Most prudent rules of governing he yet did not lack the prudence of the serpent, following the admonition of Christ, who in Matthew, chapter 10, verse 16, to his apostles said: "Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore prudent as serpents, and simple as doves." Certainly our Blessed one showed that he had prudence joined to simplicity, when in Joseph Bonafede, book 3, chapter 15, and Rossi, part 4, chapter 13, he thus prescribed to his companions the most prudent laws of governing the congregation: "Let the elders who are among you not neglect to reprehend the younger opportunely, and with paternal affection correct them; but let the younger benignly and patiently receive the admonitions, and the penalties, if they be at any time inflicted, sustain them, nay, repay a return of love and reverence to those inflicting them, and earnestly strive to pray God for them. Thus all will be holy, and wise, and gentle, and will pass your days with the greatest gladness. May the Lord be the portion of your inheritance, that God too may count you into his portion. The time of working is very brief; but the merit owed to works is immense. And if it were longer, it is better to lead a life serene with the cheerfulness of virtue, than to pass one sad with the goads and strokes of sin.

[41] Let those who are elder, and preside over others, remember to have care of the spiritual sons and subjects he prescribes to superiors, committed to them by

God. Let them note with how great confidence they entrusted themselves and all their things to them spontaneously; and let them understand that it is their duty to act as fathers and true servants of God, and so to preside over them by command, that they may profit by example. Let us consider that their own will was abdicated by them, and spontaneously submitted to the arbitration of their moderators: that they left parents, friends, and whatever they had in the world, for the love of Jesus Christ, for whom they obey their superior, bearing his place, to whom perhaps in the world they would not have given a place among their servants. Wherefore they ought to be solicitous about them, as about themselves and their own sons, nay, sons and servants of Jesus Christ, remembering that they will strictly render account of them at the great tribunal of God. Therefore again and again I ask those set over the rest, to have their subjects commended to them, and to strive to show themselves to them as fathers, shepherds, masters, brothers, in doctrine and example, that by the help of divine grace and their own prudence and charity they may be duly governed, and directed to perfection and the desired end of glory.

[42] Finally the blessed Man in Rossi, part 4, chapter 13, toward the end, hands to the same his companions the most right rules of attaining perfection in this manner: and spurs all to perfection, "The Lord has called us, my brothers, to a state of perfection, not of any kind, but of a greater. Therefore we are bound to work all things perfectly according to our strength. Let us beware lest we be reprobated as liars and deceivers. Let our light shine, and emit rays and splendors of virtues. To this let us strive, that our Father in heaven be honored in us, and that by our good example mortals may come to their senses from sins and vices, and return to the way of truth, and with us honor our Lord Jesus Christ. If we perform these things sincerely and out of charity, we shall live in joy and the jubilation of the Holy Spirit, and a secure death will receive us, which will translate us to eternal life.

[43] Let us purge out with the Apostle the old leaven, that we may be a new lump. and to them various means Let us humble ourselves to Christ the Lord, and return to him with great fervor and charity, cleansing our consciences. Let us break the chains which impede us, that we may deliver ourselves wholly to Christ, and hasten to perfection. Let us tear ourselves from ourselves and adhere to Christ, who sustained so many and so grievous torments for us. Hitherto we have been at leisure for receiving heavenly gifts and favors: now it is the hour that we awake to render fruit and due thanks.

It would befit us not to be little ones needing milk, and to be fit for more solid food, that is, strong and vigorous, and powerful to resist the strong blasts of any wind.

[44] for obtaining it I beseech you, dearest, shake off negligence and sloth, and go swiftly to meet the great gift of God. Spend your time usefully, and beware lest the adversary find you idle, but always occupied in some good work. Let some holy thought accompany any external business, and lift up the heart. Read, or hear those reading pious and devout books. Attend to prayer day and night, recollecting to memory the saying of the Savior, that one must always pray and never fail. In your prayers, however, esteem the attention of the mind more than the utterance of the voice. Let your meditations be occupied about the justice and mercy of God, that he may be feared and loved by you. With inmost sorrow remember your sins, and frequently submit yourselves to confession, and before God purely and candidly accuse yourselves, and pardon humbly ask. Weigh how great is our misery for falling, how great the benignity of God for raising us up. Run over how many and how great benefits from God, both common and singular, you have received, and for all give thanks from the heart.

[45] he suggests. Above all let the most holy life and passion of Jesus Christ cling to the mind, which illumines and strengthens the soul devoutly thinking of it. And in brief, for any spiritual sickness of ours it is a most salutary medicine. Consider besides the lives and torments of the Martyrs, by which we are kindled to the hatred of sins, to the contempt of the world, and the flight of the pleasures of sense; and conversely we are inflamed to virtue, and the desire of suffering for the love of Jesus Christ: for through many tribulations into the kingdom of God one must enter. Do not therefore, my dearest ones, suppose that you will reach the heavenly fatherland and the summit of perfection by any other way than that by which the Saints went before, and by which Sanctity itself, Christ Jesus, went. Joseph Bonafede published these same instructions in Italian, book 3, chapter 9. Our Blessed man likewise inserted many pious admonitions in the letters which he wrote to the nuns of St. Abundius and to others; but we have not leisure here to translate them all laboriously into the Latin tongue, and to set them forth in this place more fully: for from the fragments already given it is abundantly gathered with how great a longing for holiness the soul of Blessed John burned. For the rest, these entire letters of the Blessed man deserve to be shared, by means of a Latin translation, with those nations that are ignorant of the Italian idiom—a translation which we leave to men less occupied than we are, and skilled in both languages.

TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN CHRIST, OUR FATHER FRANCIS RETZ, FIFTEENTH SUPERIOR GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

A long and prosperous governance, and eternal felicity. By what chance, or rather by what good fortune of my own, shall I say it comes to pass, that the first year of Thy governance—of which the eighth month is even now gliding by very prosperously and happily—coincides with our seventh and last Volume for the month of July of the Acts of the Saints, which now comes forth into the light; among whom, though St. Ignatius of Loyola, celebrated with public cult on the thirty-first day of the same month, holds the last place, yet he holds a great part in the said Volume? And indeed there are two things which demand that these my lucubrations concerning our most excellent Parent be inscribed, by a certain proper right, to Thy name. For whom, I pray, should I rather call the patron of them than Thee, the successor of Ignatius, the imitator of Ignatius's virtues, his heir and exemplar, and thus on both these titles by far the most deserving—that St. Ignatius, who in the whole course of them breathes wholly, lives, and shines, may, by the accession and support of Thy mature judgment and paternal favor, become day by day more and more known indeed among outsiders, and illustrious among our own, with the most ample increases of private and public cult and veneration toward the Saint among both these and those? I said the successor of Ignatius; namely him whom divine providence, most abundantly adorned with excellent gifts of nature and of grace, trained through many and various offices of the Society, tested, honored, and, as it were step by step, has long since strongly and gently prepared for the supreme prefecture of governing the whole Society. Meanwhile let it be permitted me in this place, Most Reverend Father—without offense to the modesty of Thy soul—to trace back somewhat the footsteps of Thy past life. For after Prague, the most celebrated Metropolis of Bohemia, had given Thee to the world on the 13th day of September, in the year 1673; and after Brno had given Thee to the Society in the year 1689, on the 15th day of October, those studies being first completed by which the youthful age is wont to be formed to the humanities—Thou didst adorn the province of learning and of teaching with a wonderful commendation both of talent and of diligence: for with how great a swiftness of subtlety and effort of labor Thou didst run through the course of the philosophical and theological arena at Olomouc, leaving many others far behind Thee in the literary dust, the school of Olomouc is witness, and the school of Prague also is witness; of which the former, when it conferred upon Thee the public honors of the doctoral laurel in the philosophical faculty, and the latter, when it also decorated Thee with the distinguished insignia of doctor of sacred theology, willed it to be attested not secretly but openly, in the public light of the world, in how honorable a place each held Thee, and how greatly it looked up to the singular merits and glories of Thy learning. And indeed that Thou didst excellently join the name of doctor with the exercise of teaching, imbuing Thy hearers with the intricate tenets of philosophy, and forming them in the sacred studies of theology with the highest approbation, I pass over in silence, as also the office of Latin orator; since greater matters call me. For, designated to expedite the affairs of the German Assistancy, and summoned to Rome, Thou didst fulfill the most weighty office of Substitute, as we call it, in all its parts of prudence and diligence; and that for a full eighth year; then Thou didst govern the vast and populous province of Bohemia; Thou didst rule the college of St. Clement at Prague; being made at the same time Magnificent Rector of the University; likewise a second time moderator of the province; thence Assistant of Germany; then Vicar General of the whole Society; and finally Superior General. Since these things are so, what is it—if this be not the perfect gradation of things gloriously done by Thee, our Father—by which, through so many and various ministries undertaken in the Society in so brief a time, and those at Thy age, divine Providence, with its eye especially intent upon Thee, gradually advanced Thee to the supreme magistracy of governing the same; nay rather, advanced Thee in a wholly singular manner? For scarcely had the Reverend Father Michael Angelo Tamburini—never to be sufficiently praised, and now (as we wholly trust) departed to the reward of his long and most laborious governance—passed from this life on the day before the Kalends of March in the year 1730, when, behold, Rome soon saw the eyes and minds of all our men turned toward Thee; for the Congregation, held at Rome on the Nones of March according to our institute, at once in the first scrutiny, and indeed with a certain singular consent of minds and wills, elected Thee, Most Reverend Father, Vicar General; which election had this singular thing, that in the Congregation in which it took place there were Italians, French, Spaniards; but no German or Bohemian, except Thee alone, the Elect—so that from this too it may most clearly appear that Thou wast in the highest affections among all nations, and that Thou wast not so much given to the governance of the Society as born for it; and that the suffrage which was conferred on Thee by them was not so much conferred on Thee as owed to Thy so many and so great merits and paid to them, by which alone among all others Thou didst signally excel. For the rest, how greatly that choice was approved not only by our own—however widely the Society is spread abroad—but also by outsiders, men of the chief authority, it is not worthwhile to pursue at length. But with how great vigilance, prudence, and dexterity, with how untiring and assiduous labor Thou didst join the most ample office of Vicar of the Society with the office of Assistant of Germany—to which belong in the Society altogether ten provinces—for the space of nine months, may be understood chiefly from this, that the Society, gathered from so many and so various lands, again elected Thee its Superior General the Fifteenth in the first scrutiny, on the day before the Kalends of December in the same year 1730; and that with so great a renewed consent of minds, that the sworn and secret suffrages of the seventy-eight Electors all met in Thee, except one single one, Thine own not being counted. By which fact alone not only are the plainly signal merits of Thy Most Reverend Paternity confirmed; but the lying rumor is convicted of most manifest calumny—that rumor which first scattered abroad in the City of Rome, and then carried into other lands also, the report that the Society was divided in choosing the General into contrary zeals and factions. The wicked rumor would perhaps have feigned tumults also in the elections of the Assistant Fathers and of others, if it had so greatly served, after its manner, to kindle envy against the Society. But well it is, that the author and leader of this our Society, Jesus—who once promised to Ignatius and his companions that He would be favorable to them at Rome, in that remarkable apparition in which He showed Himself conspicuous and lovable to the Saint in the Roman countryside—so also at this time looked with favorable eyes upon the Assembly of the Elector Fathers, so directing their minds that the very act of election was not only completed in the first scrutiny, but ought also to be said to have been completed in almost the most perfect manner in which a thing of this kind can be accomplished. Moreover the election of Thy Most Reverend Paternity, as it was awaited by the sincere and well-informed appraisers of Thy merits, so it was approved with assent wholly honorable both to Thee and to the whole Society by the whole City, by the highest and the lowest, and by the very Vicar of Christ on earth (whose See and years may God well prosper!); and in foreign regions, kingdoms, and Empires it was received by the supreme Princes also with no small congratulation and commendation of Thy name. And this indeed was the sentiment concerning Thee both of our own men and of outsiders, best of Fathers: but how, on the contrary, cheap, how utterly nothing was Thine own sentiment concerning Thyself? For indeed, as soon as Thou didst see Thyself elected, imitating—so far as in Thee lay—the illustrious exemplar of the first Superior General of our Society, Thou didst attest to the general Congregation in most weighty words: “That if it were permitted by our Constitutions, Thou wouldst without doubt decline the dignity conferred on Thee: for that it was a cross, which must be borne through all one's life, and on which one must die. But since Thou couldst not decline it, that Thou wouldst undergo it: yet that Thou didst beg the Sacrifices and prayers of the Fathers, that after the example of St. Andrew (whose feast day was then being kept) Thou mightest bear it to the glory of God. But that if the administration of the Society imposed on Thee should at some time not be for the divine glory and the good of the Society, that God the Best and Greatest would circumscribe it within a very brief time.” What was the sentiment—at this address of Thine, most loving Father, a most sweet enticement withal to bind to Thee the souls of Thy sons—what sweet motions of soul there were, I could not easily explain in words; and, while I am silent, the tears that everywhere started forth in all the assembled Fathers spoke. But now, how greatly Thou didst profit the general Congregation, over which by office Thou didst preside with the highest authority; how greatly Thou didst aid it by Thy admirable prudence, gathered and, so to speak, boiled down by long experience and long practice in affairs; how greatly Thou didst relieve it by Thy most ready counsel and dexterity in defining doubtful matters and unraveling entangled ones on the spot; how excellently Thou didst sustain the esteem previously conceived of Thee, didst increase hope, and didst surpass expectation—let the whole Assembly of the congregated Fathers say for me, whom I here call as witness. The sincere mind has its own words, the feigned mind its own; the temper of observance is one thing, that of flattery another; that former thing indeed, without any show of adulation, without any peril of error, I here openly and truly pronounce: that if the election had had to be repeated, all together and each singly, not even one being excepted, would have conspired in Thee; nay, even by the force of inspiration alone, no scrutiny being employed, all would with one voice have acclaimed Thee General. Which indeed was the common voice everywhere of the Fathers returning into the provinces. But who could by speech explain with how pathetic an oration, toward the end of the general Assembly, Thou didst address the congregated Fathers; with how great a token of an exulting soul Thou didst extol the charity of all, joined with the due liberty in delivering their opinions throughout the whole time of the Congregation; so that surely those outsiders ought to be ashamed, who, I know not what dissensions among the convoked Fathers to be raging, both scattered abroad in the very city of Rome and published even into foreign regions: with how great benevolence Thou didst promise that, just as before Thou hadst done for the happy arrival of the Fathers in the City, so then, for their prosperous return into their provinces, Thou wouldst offer several thousands of Sacrifices each week, from those which are appointed for Thy intention by the Society, offering them to God the Best and Greatest, until Thou shouldst be made more certain of their return: with how ready a will, finally, Thou didst approve the vow of the Fathers, arising from a singular conjunction of minds—that, whenever any one of the aforesaid Fathers should depart from this life, all the survivors out of that number, besides the customary suffrages of the Society, should offer a particular Sacrifice for the deceased. Since these things are so; ought not our lucubrations concerning the deeds of St. Ignatius, which now behold the public light, to have been inscribed to Thee by the best of rights, as to the most deserving successor of that same holy Parent of ours in guiding the helm of the whole Society which he himself instituted and ruled? I should be too long, Most Reverend Father, and should abuse Thy modesty, if I were to pursue one by one Thy remaining virtues, as it were transfused into Thee from the spirit and example of St. Ignatius, and hereditary. Those virtues indeed the holy Man both handed down in his Constitutions, when he described the Perfect form of a Superior General, as Ribadeneira says in the Preface to the fifth book of the Life; and also expressed in himself: for, as the same author adds, thinking of nothing less than of himself, he seems to me to have painted himself in his own colors; I add: and Thee, his successor. The matter is proved by Thy singular pursuit of prayer amid assiduous and weighty occupations, that sincere and constant devotion in divine worship, that most close familiarity with God, that unconquered meekness, patience, sweetness, fortitude, constancy, greatness of soul together with lowliness, and care of the sick; how greatly these shone forth in St. Ignatius, Ribadeneira shows in book 5 of the Life; but how greatly in Thee, I shall not pursue at length, lest my discourse exceed measure. Yet one deed, in which several virtues shone at once, I cannot pass over in silence; from which, although now long past, it will be easy for anyone to form a judgment concerning the present ornaments of Thy virtues, of which Thou then didst seem to have given a prelude in a wholly gracious manner. For while, under our Reverend Father Michael Angelo, of whom I spoke above, having discharged the office of expediting the affairs of the German Assistancy, Thou wast returning from Rome to Thy province, that Thou mightest preside over it, we know that Thou didst bring with Thee a certain brother, a helper in temporal matters, deprived of the use of his limbs, especially of his feet, which were contracted. We know further, most loving Father, that from Rome all the way to Vienna (for that brother was from the province of Austria) Thou didst serve that poor wretch after the manner of an infirmarian's helper, or rather a servant, most dutiful in every lowliest office of charity; in the evening undressing him and settling him into his little bed; but in the morning lifting him out thence, clothing him with his garments, and hoisting him into the carriage. We know, I say, all these things from a faithful witness; and we venerate the true spirit of Ignatius in them—Ignatius, who even then, when he administered the prefecture of the whole Society, thought nothing of the meanest ministries about the sick alien from himself; from my prefatory Commentary, §80, no. 818. Since therefore Thou dost closely apply Thyself to imitating these and other virtues of the Saint, Most Reverend Father, I could inscribe to none rather than to Thee the illustrated Acts of St. Ignatius, in which the living examples of his virtues, his deeds, words, thoughts—in short, the whole Ignatius—shine forth as in a most limpid mirror; which Acts, according to what I have said, are owed to Thee by so close a bond of right, that they could not be owed to any other of all mortals by a closer one. For these causes, therefore, I am altogether led to hold it fixed in my mind, and plainly to trust—relying on Thy singular kindness and benevolence—that with Thee, although distracted on every side by so many and so great affairs, cares, vigils, and labors, there shall nevertheless find easy access whatever there is of this work in clearing away, collecting, and illustrating the deeds and examples of our Parent and Thy Predecessor, by which as by so many steps he ascended to the highest summit of most absolute perfection, and obtained, equal to the merits of so many virtues, a crown of glory both among the Heavenly ones and among mortals. But if either the very things which I treat, or the order of matters, or the choice of material, or the character and style of writing have anything which is not sufficiently elaborated by talent, digested by industry, or polished by art; yet deign not to be reluctant to admit these my endeavors, such as they are, with that calm and kindly countenance with which Thou art wont to take even the slighter services in good part, as a perpetual pledge and monument of my veneration and observance toward Thee. May God grant that—since from Thy governance, our Most Reverend Father, so many and great goods are hoped for, by most deserving right, both for the whole Society and for the whole Church of God—Thou mayest preside over the Society the most long-lived of all the Generals who have preceded Thee; until, after a long and happy rule of the same, most abundantly heaped with an affluence of all heavenly gifts, thou mayest late depart from it to the most longed-for embraces of our holy Parent, and to the heavenly, truly blessed and everlasting fellowship, being, from the successor and imitator of St. Ignatius, his perpetual companion therein. Thus he vows, with a most humble affection of veneration, at Antwerp, on the 31st day of July, on the very festal light of our holy Father Ignatius, in the year 1731.

OUR MOST REVEREND FATHER,

of Thy Most Reverend Paternity

THE MOST DEVOTED SERVANT AND MOST OBEDIENT SON, JOHN PINIUS.